ARCHIVES: United States
The Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed deep concern over the revelation that a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent pretended to be an Associated Press reporter as part of a criminal investigation and calls on authorities to halt use of the tactic. The New York Times published online Thursday last a letter to the editor dated Wednesday from FBI Director James Comey, in which the director revealed that an unidentified FBI agent posed as an AP reporter to a suspect. The letter was in... MORE
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 25 news organisations in a letter to US Attorney General Eric H Holder Jr and FBI Director James B Comey Jr have asked for full disclosure of the facts surrounding the FBI’s utilisation of a fake Associated Press article online that delivered tracking software to a suspect’s computer, enabling the FBI to locate him. As the Reporters Committee letter pointed out, the warrant for such action apparently did not mention that the tracker was... MORE
The Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed alarm over a news report that law enforcement authorities in Ferguson, Missouri, sought a no-fly zone during unrest in August with the intent of blocking access for the press. In an article published Sunday, The Associated Press reported on recorded telephone conversations between officials with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which the news organisation obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. In the conversations,... MORE
The International Federation of Journalists has expressed its strong support to its member unions in the United States in their protest about the shameful treatment of journalists by a police SWAT team during the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. Two reporters, Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post and Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post, were violently arrested by police in an act “wholly unwarranted and an assault on the freedom of the press to cover the news” according to Washington Post editor... MORE
Large-scale US surveillance is seriously hampering US-based journalists and lawyers in their work, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union said in a joint report released today. Surveillance is undermining media freedom and the right to counsel, and ultimately obstructing the American people’s ability to hold their government to account, the groups said. The 120-page report, “With Liberty to Monitor All: How Large-Scale US Surveillance is Harming Journalism, Law, and American... MORE
The International Press Institute (IPI) Wednesday called on the US Justice Department to bring to a close its criminal investigation into Wikileaks over the website’s role in the publication of leaked Defense and State Department documents in 2010. Authorities have acknowledged that a criminal investigation targeting Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange , remains ongoing four years after the documents were published and nearly one year after the soldier who leaked the documents was... MORE
The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on the United States Department of Justice to withdraw a subpoena seeking to force journalist James Risen to give testimony that would reveal a confidential source. The Supreme Court said today it would not consider Risen's appeal of a lower court ruling that he must testify, meaning the journalist has exhausted his legal avenues to challenge the subpoena, according to news reports. The case stems from Risen's 2006 book State of War, in which the... MORE
Roger Shuler , whose blog, Legal Schnauzer , specialises in allegations of corruption and scandal in Republican circles in Alabama, was released from jail on March 26, 2014, after spending more than five months in prison on contempt of court charges, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Shuler was arrested on October 1, 2013, for failing to comply with a preliminary injunction prohibiting him from publishing certain stories on his blog. A Shelby County judge ordered Shuler's... MORE
Following requests from both prosecutors and defense attorneys, yesterday the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas dismissed 11 felony counts against journalist Barrett Brown . The charges related to the reposting of a publicly-available hyperlink containing thousands of documents stolen from intelligence contractor Stratfor Forecasting . Brown was never accused of having a role in illegally obtaining the information from Stratfor. "The U.S. Department of Justice never should... MORE
The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by a report that a potential operation by the British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) involved covert surveillance of reporters' communications. GCHQ sought to use journalists to pass both information and disinformation to intelligence targets, according to documents taken from the National Security Agency by Edward Snowden and obtained by NBC News. "CPJ is concerned about reports that GCHQ sought to co-... MORE
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