The family of murdered agent Denis Donaldson have said they are concerned that police ran checks on a reporter's mobile phone after he wrote a story on the killing. BBC Spotlight has revealed new details about call monitoring of the phone of former BBC security editor Brian Rowan.
Mr Donaldson was a police and MI5 agent within Sinn Fein.
PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher has offered to meet Rowan, who said the police have told him nothing about the operation against him in 2006. He learned of their actions from the BBC, as part of a case it took with journalist Vincent Kearney at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT).
The case was believed to be the first time that MI5 had been directed to pay compensation to a journalist
Case papers reveal an 'Operation Mally' was launched by the PSNI, after Rowan wrote a Belfast Telegraph story on the agent's last meeting with his handlers. It involved checking Rowan's mobile number for any interactions with police phones in a hunt for his sources.
Rowan told BBC Spotlight he was not surprised and says he would not rule out deeper intrusions into his communications data.
