Independent Ireland Leader condemns deeply dangerous assault on press freedom "Sinister blueprint for authoritarian state"

Michael Collins TD, Leader of Independent Ireland, has today issued a strong rebuke of the Government’s proposals to grant Gardaí the power to seize journalists’ phones and devices, branding the draft Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill as “a deliberate and cynical attempt to dilute journalistic privilege and criminalise accountability.”

Deputy Collins said: “This is a shocking and sinister piece of legislation. It reads less like a reform bill and more like a blueprint for an authoritarian state. If enacted in its current form, it will drive a coach and four through the protections that journalists and whistleblowers have relied upon to speak truth to power. That is unacceptable in a functioning democracy.”

The proposed legislation would allow Gardaí to seize and search electronic devices belonging to journalists including phones, laptops and data storage devices. It would also make it an offence to refuse to hand over passwords or encryption details when compelled.

“The public should be alarmed,” Collins said. “This Bill enables the State to trawl through journalistic materials under the guise of oversight. But the truth is this: oversight is only as good as the threshold it operates on, and this Bill sets the bar perilously low.”

Deputy Collins, referenced an unlawful raid in a 2019 incident involving journalistic material, a search later ruled invalid by the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court to be invalid and have the warrant quashed and  said the lesson from that case had clearly not been learned by the Government.

“Instead of building in higher safeguards, this Government is effectively trying to legislate around the judiciary’s defence of press freedom,” he said. “It is a deliberate response to having been told ‘No’ by the courts; and it should not be tolerated.”

Independent Ireland is now calling for an immediate Oireachtas review of the draft Bill and for the inclusion of press and civil society stakeholders in any legislative process affecting journalistic freedom.

Deputy Collins also confirmed that his Party will be tabling a Private Member’s Bill the ‘Journalistic Sources and Materials Protection Bill 2026’; which would elevate journalistic source protection to the status of a ‘protected privilege’, with access only in cases of imminent and specific threat to life, property or critical infrastructure, and only under tightly controlled judicial orders: “There is no democratic legitimacy for allowing retrospective powers that chill whistleblowers and embolden secrecy,” Collins said. “The State has no business rifling through a journalist’s private correspondence to identify a source, after the fact, because it suits a Garda investigation. That is a grotesque inversion of democratic values.”

The Independent Ireland leader said he will be  writing to Justice and Home Affairs Minister Jim O’Callaghan seeking a meeting on the matter and has urged cross-party support for stronger legal protections. “We have an opportunity to show leadership; or we can slide further down the path of soft authoritarianism. It’s as stark as that,” he said.