The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington said federal investigators seek phone records from news outlets only after making "every reasonable effort to obtain information through alternative means."
Source/Credit: All Voices | Washington : DC
By Nathan Salant | May 13, 2013
News that the US Justice Department has been poring more than two months of telephone records of The Associated Press reporters and editors should give every American pause.
Voters gave Barack Obama a second term as president because he seemed to be getting better at the job and seemed likely to be able to deliver on more of his first-term campaign promises.
He did, after all, put a stop to the relentless accumulation of power by the executive branch under George W. Bush.
Or did he?
People's right to be secure in their communications is a freedom of speech issue, and it is no coincidence that the phrase "freedom of the press" follows immediately in the language of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
Freedom of the press is an expression of free speech, and confidential telephone conversations are essential to a free press.
"Obtaining a broad range of telephone records in order to ferret out a government leaker is an unacceptable abuse of power," said Ben Wizner, the head of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, in a written statement, according to Cable News Network (CNN).
"Freedom of the press is a pillar of our democracy, and that freedom often depends on confidential communications between reporters and their sources," the statement said.
The AP learned of the government's seizure of its telephone records Friday, when the existence of the subpoenas was disclosed to the news agency.
AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt sent off an angry letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder Monday.
""We regard this action by the Department of Justice as a serious interference with AP's constitutional rights to gather and report the news," the letter said.
Pruitt also demanded that the Department of Justice return all records collected and destroy any copies.
The records included calls made from several AP bureaus and from the personal lines of several staffers, CNN said.
The government did not disclose why it sought the information, CNN said
But CNN also said it believes the Justice Department was trying to find out who leaked information about a failed bomb plot targeting a US airliner in 2012.
Among the records seized were the telephone calls of five reporters who worked on an article about the alleged plot, CNN said.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington said federal investigators seek phone records from news outlets only after making "every reasonable effort to obtain information through alternative means," CNN said.
"We must notify the media organization in advance unless doing so would pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation," the office said.
"Because we value the freedom of the press, we are always careful and deliberative in seeking to strike the right balance between the public interest in the free flow of information and the public interest in the fair and effective administration of our criminal laws."
But in his letter to Holder, Pruitt called the subpoenas a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into the agency's reporting.
"These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP's newsgathering operations and disclose information about AP's activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know," Pruitt wrote.
Congressional leaders reacted with dismay at the revelation of the Justice Department's actions.
"I am very troubled by these allegations and want to hear the government's explanation," Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who chairs the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN.
"The burden is always on the government when they go after private information -- especially information regarding the press or its confidential sources," Leahy [Unlink] said.
"I want to know more about this case, but on the face of it, I am concerned that the government may not have met that burden."
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said the Justice Department already had the ability to monitor all government phones and activities.
"You can imagine if Congress wanted to know about leaks that obviously came out of the administration that ended up in the press, they would be outraged if we tried to get that information," Issa said.
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Nathan Salant is based in San Francisco, California, United States of America, and is an Anchor for Allvoices.
Read original post here: Associated Press outraged by US Justice Department seizure of phone records
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