{"id":43847,"date":"2013-06-20T19:36:57","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T18:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/ap-chief-sources-stopped-speaking-to-us\/43847\/"},"modified":"2013-06-20T19:36:57","modified_gmt":"2013-06-20T18:36:57","slug":"ap-chief-sources-stopped-speaking-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/ap-chief-sources-stopped-speaking-to-us\/","title":{"rendered":"AP chief: Sources stopped speaking to us"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Published time: June 20, 2013 18:33<\/span> <\/div>\n

\"Associated\n<\/div>\n

As a result of the Justice Department\u2019s seizure of Associated Press phone records, many of the news agency\u2019s sources now refuse to talk, out of fear that the government will find out.<\/p>\n

AP president and CEO Gary Pruitt on Wednesday<\/span> condemned the DOJ for acting as a \u201cjudge, jury and executioner\u201d<\/em> by seizing AP phone records and refusing to give the news agency notice of the subpoena.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s actions have caused anonymous sources to retreat in silence, afraid that they could become a target of a government leak investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of our longtime trusted sources have become nervous and anxious about talking with us, even on stories that aren\u2019t about national security.\u201d<\/em> Pruitt said in a speech at the National Press Club. \u201cAnd in some cases, government employees we once checked in with regularly will no longer speak to us by phone, and some are reluctant to meet in person.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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The AP chief called the effect of the DOJ investigation \u201cchilling\u201d,<\/em> and said many news agencies are now losing sources that they have long relied on.<\/p>\n

\u201cJournalists from other news organizations have personally told me that it has intimidated both official and nonofficial sources from speaking to the as well,\u201d<\/em> Pruitt said, noting that this should alarm \u201ceveryone in this country.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Pruitt said the AP is planning to obtain encryption and security protections for their reporters and sources, in order to keep both hackers and the government from obtaining their communications records. The news agency is also examining DOJ guidelines, and hopes that the department will recognize that it cannot \u201cprosecute any journalist for doing his or her job,\u201d<\/em> Pruitt said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Citing a specific example on the effect of the DOJ\u2019s seizure of phone records, Pruitt said AP journalists have been unable to get a law enforcement official to confirm a detail that had already been reported elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, the government may love this. I suspect they do,\u201d<\/em> Pruitt said, referencing the intimidation of journalists\u2019 sources. \u201cBut beware the government that loves secrecy too much.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

On May 13<\/span>, AP announced that telephone records for 20 of their reporters had been seized<\/a> by the Justice Department during a two-month period in 2012, which Pruitt called a \u201cmassive and unprecedented intrusion\u201d<\/em>. On May 17<\/span>, the Washington Post reported that the DOJ had also tracked<\/a> the communications of Fox News reporter James Rosen, calling him a \u201ccriminal conspirator\u201d<\/em> to obtain the warrants to do so. The Obama administration has come under immense scrutiny for unconstitutionally spying on journalists and intimidating the freedom of the press.<\/p>\n

In his most recent speech, the AP chief emphasized that the US Constitution guarantees this freedom, and that the DOJ\u2019s actions \u201ccomfort authoritarian regimes that want to suppress their own news media.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: ‘You Say What You Like, Because They Like What You Say’ – http:\/\/www.medialens.org\/index.php\/alerts\/alert-archive\/alerts-2013\/731-you-say-what-you-like-because-they-like-what-you-say.html<\/em><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on: RT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published time: June 20, 2013 18:33 As a result of the Justice Department\u2019s seizure of Associated Press phone records, many of the news agency\u2019s sources now refuse to talk, out of fear that the government will find out. AP president and CEO Gary Pruitt on Wednesday condemned the DOJ for acting as a \u201cjudge, jury […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}