Police seize journalist's phone

Eamonn MacDermott, who often writes about dissident republicans, said the PSNI presented him with a warrant to confiscate the phone on Thursday.

The NUJ said it was a threat to journalists' rights to protect their sources' confidentiality. However the PSNI defended the move saying it would use all legal methods to carry out investigations.

Amid complaints that Mr MacDermott was unable to operate as a journalist because of the seizure, it is understood the police today handed back the SIM card, but not the phone.

Mr MacDermott believes the seizure relates to a call he received from the Real IRA following a bomb last year.

"In the course of making a statement previously the police told me that they would be able to access my phone records," he said.

"I know they have accessed my phone records so I asked them why do they need the handset when they already have access to records and can access the records without any difficulty whatsoever."

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said:

"The seizure of his phone and the accessing of his phone records by the police is another attack on the right of journalists to operate in Northern Ireland.

"The right to protect confidential sources of information is compromised when police act in this way and we take this action very seriously."