AP president and chief executive officer Gary Pruitt sent a letter of protest to Attorney General Eric Holder
WASHINGTON: The Associated Press yesterday said the US government seized records from phone lines assigned to AP offices and its reporters over two months in 2012, which the news service described as a “massive and unprecedented intrusion.”
AP Chief Executive Gary Pruitt, in a letter on the agency’s website, said the AP was informed last Friday that the Justice Department gathered records for more than 20 lines assigned to the agency and its reporters.
Phone lines at AP bureaus in New York, Hartford and Washington were among those affected by the seizure, as well as an AP phone at the House of Representatives, the AP said.
“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters,” Pruitt said in the letter addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder.
The Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia, which notified the AP of the seizure, said 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 organisations,” the office said. Reuters
