Holder to Tighten Rules for Obtaining Reporters’ Data

[kpete]

Source: New York TImes

Holder to Tighten Rules for Obtaining Reporters’ Data
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: July 12, 2013

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who has been criticized for the Justice Department’s aggressive tactics in secretly obtaining phone logs and e-mails of reporters as part of leak investigations, is expected to issue new guidelines on Friday that would significantly narrow the circumstances under which journalists’ records could be obtained, a Justice Department official said.

The new guidelines, which the official said would take effect almost immediately, would prevent the Federal Bureau of Investigation from portraying a reporter as a co-conspirator in a criminal leak as a way to get around a legal bar on secret search warrants for reporting materials, as an agent did in a recently revealed search warrant affidavit involving a Fox News reporter.

They would also make it harder — though not impossible — for prosecutors to obtain a journalist’s calling records from telephone companies without giving news organizations advance notice, as the department recently did in obtaining a sweeping set of phone records for reporters with The Associated Press. Notifying news organizations in advance would give them a chance to contest the request in court.

“This is as far as the department can go on its own until Congress passes the media shield legislation,” the Justice Department official said, referring to a bill, which the Obama administration backed amid a furor over leak investigations, that would let judges rather than prosecutors be the ultimate decision-makers about subpoenas for journalists’ phone records, among other matters.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/13/us/holder-to-tighten-rules-for-obtaining-reporters-data.html?hp

[lastlib]

1. How about: "NO"?

(Irks the HELL out of me that we even have to discuss this. We HAVE a rule about intimidating reporters--it's called "the FIRST AMENDMENT"! Holder, you should try reading it sometime. If necessary, I can explain it to you.)

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . .

[geek tragedy]

3. No, what? Certainly the rule isn't that journalists are above the law completely. nt

[geek tragedy]

2. more:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/12/1223086/-New-DOJ-guidelines-to-make-it-harder-for-government-to-secretly-obtain-records-from-journalists

According to NBC's Pete Williams, a Department of Justice official described the rules changes as a concession that the DOJ was wrong to have secretly obtained records from the AP and it was wrong to have labeled Fox reporter James Rosen a "co-conspirator" in order to search his email in connection with a leak investigation.

Williams said the guidelines would only permit investigators to obtain records without advance notice if giving notice would compromise the integrity of the investigation. In addition, he says the guidelines will say that reporters cannot be targeted for conducting investigative journalism, even if that means encouraging leaks. Essentially, it would mean that investigators could only obtain records from journalists if the journalist was the target of a criminal investigation.

[Iliyah]

4. Well that would suck for a GOPer Prez

Gopers in congress will never pass the "Shield Legislation".

[dmosh42]

5. Holder is in over his head! He's only good for chasing the pot smokers!

[AnotherMcIntosh]

6. So it will soon be time for the reporters to go back to sleep.

[blkmusclmachine]

7. Meh.