傳媒並非超然於法律之上！
【批註：2013-5-17新聞。有記者要奧巴馬為此事向ＡＰ及傳媒道歉，奧巴馬一口拒絕，認為國家安全比甚麼都重要。
傳媒，在美國也不是「大哂」。
此事可證，傳媒不是在法律之上的。在美國這被認為是新聞自由的天堂也不例外。】
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U.S.
Seized Phone Records of AP Staff
By
DEVLIN BARRETT
The
Justice Department seized records of 20 separate phone lines used by reporters
or editors for the Associated Press, in a move that officials familiar with the
case said was intended to gather information for a leak investigation involving
a May 2012 AP story about a counterterrorism operation in Yemen.
The
Justice Department notified AP on Friday that records had been subpoenaed from
telephone companies several months ago. The subpoenas covered a two-month
period around the time AP wrote the story about an alleged conspiracy to
detonate an underwear bomb aboard a U.S.-bound airliner. The plot was foiled
early on because the alleged bomber was a mole for a foreign intelligence
service working against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, according to
officials familiar with the case.
It
isn't the first time the government has subpoenaed reporters' records in a leak
investigation, but the breadth of AP phone logs sought went beyond the searches
used by the Justice Department in known past cases.
In
making the government's subpoenas public Monday, AP denounced the effort as a
"massive and unprecedented intrusion by the Department of Justice into the
news-gathering activities" of the company. The AP is a cooperative that
serves member news outlets and customers including websites, newspapers, and
television and radio stations.
The
government took records of calls received and made from 20 phone lines
associated with AP or its staffers, the company said in its letter of protest
to the government. These included the home or personal cellphone numbers of
editors and reporters, and the office numbers of AP bureaus in New York,
Washington and Hartford, Conn., as well as the company's phone in the press
area of the House of Representatives, it said.
AP
called it "particularly troubling" that the Justice Department took
that step without giving the company notice, or "taking any steps to
narrow the scope of its subpoenas to matters actually relevant to an ongoing
investigation."
The
subpoenas sought the phone numbers with which the AP journalists had contact
and the duration of those calls. The government notice gave no indication that
the content of any calls was monitored.
A
spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Washington, whose office is conducting the
leak probe, said Justice Department policies require the office to make
"every reasonable effort to obtain information through alternative means before
even considering a subpoena for phone records of a member of the media."
The
spokesman added: "Because we value the freedom of the press, we are always
careful and deliberative in seeking to strike the right balance between the
public interest in the free flow of information and the public interest in the
fair and effective administration of our criminal laws."
When
officials announced the leak investigation last year, they said it was
necessary to protect national security.
Ben
Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union called the government's move
"an unacceptable abuse of power."
Write
to Devlin Barrett at devlin.barrett@wsj.com
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