Freedom Of The Press Foundation Sues DOJ Over Its Secret Rules For Spying On Journalists
by Mike Masnick
TechDirt.com
Fri, Jul 31st 2015
The wonderful Freedom of the Press Foundation is now suing the US Justice Department for refusing to reveal its rules and procedures for spying on journalists. You can read the complaint here. The key issue: what rules and oversight exist for the DOJ when it comes to spying on journalists. As you may recall, a few years ago, it came out that the DOJ had been using some fairly sneaky tricks to spy on journalists, including falsely telling a court that reporter James Rosen was a “co-conspirator” in order to get access to his emails and phone records. In response to a lot of criticism, the DOJ agreed to “revise” its rules for when it snoops on journalists.
However, there was an important limitation on the “new” rules, as the NY Times noted at the time:
There is no change to how the F.B.I. may obtain reporters’ calling records via “national security letters,” which are exempt from the regular guidelines. A Justice spokesman said the device is ‘subject to an extensive oversight regime.’
Extensive oversight regime, eh? The Freedom of the Press Foundation sought to find out just what kind of extensive oversight there really was — and came up against a brick wall in the form of black redaction ink:
The Rest…HERE
