Dr Maria Murphy Discusses GSOC Access to Journalistic Phone Records on KFM

Friday, January 22, 2016 - 11:00

On 20 January 2016, Dr Maria Helen Murphy was invited to speak about the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission's (GSOC) access to journalist phone records on KFM’s 'Kildare Today' show. While Dr Murphy acknowledged the vital importance of source protection in a democratic society, she called for a broader consideration of data retention law and practice in Ireland. Dr Murphy drew attention to the ongoing Digital Rights Ireland litigation on the issue and pointed out that the EU Data Retention Directive was found to be incompatible with human rights by the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2014.

For anyone interested in the legal background to the GSOC scandal, Dr Murphy suggests reading her article, ‘Data retention in the aftermath of Digital Rights Ireland and Seitlinger’, which was published in the Irish Criminal Law Journal in 2014 (vol. 24(4) at 105, available on Westlaw.ie).

Maria discusses similar issues in several of her courses at Maynooth University Department of Law, including her course in Information Privacy Law which is offered to LLM (Global Legal Studies) and LLM (International Business Law) students.