Four BBC journalists were arrested and a film was seized from them by Gardai (police) investigating paramilitary activity in Co. Donegal.Another seven people who were arrested in two separate swoops in the same police operation on Sunday included dissident Republicans, among them a suspected leader of the Real IRA in Derry.Four of the suspected dissidents were later charged at the no-jury Special Criminal Court in Dublin with offenses linked to what cops described as paramilitary activities in Donegal.The BBC confirmed that the journalists worked for BBC current affairs in Northern Ireland and were on an investigation with full editorial authority under BBC guidelines.She added that "other parties present" during the arrests were fully aware they were with BBC journalists.It's understood the journalists included a team working on an investigation for the Panorama program - which is beamed by the main BBC network in Britain - into diesel-laundering and smuggling along the border. Another team in the group is believed to have been working on a documentary on murdered IRA double-agent Denis Donaldson.He was killed two years ago at a remote cottage hideaway outside Glenties, Co. Donegal, after admitting he spied for the British authorities while holding a senior Sinn Fein position in Belfast.Cops were tight-lipped about the arrests this week, even refusing lawyers access to the arrested people in the early stages of the operation.According to some reports some of the footage seized by cops illustrated a "show of strength" by masked members of the Real IRA.A number of Republican splinter groups are believed to have established paramilitary training camps and smuggling routes along the border between Donegal on one side and Derry and Tyrone on the other.Earlier this month one splinter group abducted one of its own members, 27-year-old Andrew burns, from a bar in Strabane, Co. Tyrone, crossed the border into Donegal, shot him dead -- leaving his body in a church car park -- and fled back across the border.How the Gardai were aware the BBC was in Donegal with the dissidents is unclear, but it's thought they were tipped off by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) who were anxious that the movements of suspects be monitored on the Republic side of the border.In the North, East Derry Democratic Unionist Party MP Gregory Campbell was anxious to know what guidelines were laid down for the BBC staff. He asked the BBC to explain what the guidelines were, and what the broadcasting team were doing when they were seized."I would like to hear the BBC expand on that and say what it was exactly they were doing," he said."They need to: A, explain what their guidelines are, and B, explain the activities of the camera crew when Gardai took steps against them."It's all very well for them to say they have guidelines but the public need to know what these are."