News agency anger over seizure of phone records
Source: Agencies |
May 15, 2013, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
The Associated Press said yesterday that the US government secretly seized telephone records of AP offices and reporters for a two-month period in 2012, describing the acts as a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into news-gathering operations.
Chief Executive Gary Pruitt, in a letter posted on the agency's website, said that AP was informed last Friday that the Justice Department gathered records for more than 20 phone lines assigned to the news agency and its reporters.
"There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters," Pruitt said in the letter addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder.
An AP story on the records seizure said the government would not say why it sought them.
But it noted that US officials had previously said the US Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia was conducting a criminal investigation into information contained in a May 7, 2012, story about a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaida plot to detonate a bomb on an airplane headed for the United States.
Confrontation threat
Five reporters and an editor involved in that story were among those whose phone numbers were obtained by the government, AP said.
The disclosure threatened to set off a confrontation between free press advocates and the Obama administration, which has aggressively pursued national security leaks. "It's alarming given the scale of it," said David Schulz, an attorney with Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz who is representing AP. "This is a massive intrusion into the news gathering operation of one of the largest news organizations in the US. People should be concerned."
The US Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia, which notified the AP of the seizure, issued a statement on Monday saying it was "careful and deliberative" when dealing with issues around freedom of the press.
"We take seriously our obligations to follow all applicable laws, federal regulations, and Department of Justice policies when issuing subpoenas for phone records of media organizations," it said.
A Justice Department spokesman referred inquires to the US Attorney's Office.
The White House was not involved in the decision to seize the AP records, Press Secretary Jay Carney said.
"Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP," Carney said.
AP journalists' home and cell phone records were seized by the Justice Department, Pruitt said in his letter.
The reporters who were targeted included Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman and Eileen Sullivan, who were also part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for revealing secret New York Police Department intelligence operations targeting Muslim communities.
Chief Executive Gary Pruitt, in a letter posted on the agency's website, said that AP was informed last Friday that the Justice Department gathered records for more than 20 phone lines assigned to the news agency and its reporters.
"There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters," Pruitt said in the letter addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder.
An AP story on the records seizure said the government would not say why it sought them.
But it noted that US officials had previously said the US Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia was conducting a criminal investigation into information contained in a May 7, 2012, story about a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaida plot to detonate a bomb on an airplane headed for the United States.
Confrontation threat
Five reporters and an editor involved in that story were among those whose phone numbers were obtained by the government, AP said.
The disclosure threatened to set off a confrontation between free press advocates and the Obama administration, which has aggressively pursued national security leaks. "It's alarming given the scale of it," said David Schulz, an attorney with Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz who is representing AP. "This is a massive intrusion into the news gathering operation of one of the largest news organizations in the US. People should be concerned."
The US Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia, which notified the AP of the seizure, issued a statement on Monday saying it was "careful and deliberative" when dealing with issues around freedom of the press.
"We take seriously our obligations to follow all applicable laws, federal regulations, and Department of Justice policies when issuing subpoenas for phone records of media organizations," it said.
A Justice Department spokesman referred inquires to the US Attorney's Office.
The White House was not involved in the decision to seize the AP records, Press Secretary Jay Carney said.
"Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP," Carney said.
AP journalists' home and cell phone records were seized by the Justice Department, Pruitt said in his letter.
The reporters who were targeted included Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman and Eileen Sullivan, who were also part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for revealing secret New York Police Department intelligence operations targeting Muslim communities.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
