SPJ President Sonny Albarado issued a statement condemning the government’s seizure of the AP’s phone records.
Albarado called the actions “shameful and outrageous” and said they demonstrate the need for a federal shield law for journalists.
“Prosecutors, unlike reporters, have subpoena power to compel testimony, yet lazy prosecutors often prefer to go after reporters’ notes and records rather than do the hard investigative work to dig out information without trampling on the First Amendment,” Albarado wrote.
See the full statement here.
The AP reported that the DOJ secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors at the news cooperative. Gary Pruitt, AP’s president and CEO, said the government “sought and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation.”
Attorney General Eric Holder was grilled by Capitol Hill lawmakers this week regarding the actions on AP.