Posted by Tina
Speaking at an AP conference in Denver, Gary Pruitt, president and CEO of The Associated Press, included some harsh words in his remarks about Justice Department snooping in 2012 and warned of the chilling effect it has had on journalists:
DENVER (AP) — Governments that try to force citizens to decide between a free press and national security create a “false choice” that weakens democracy, and journalists must fight increasing government overreach that has had a chilling effect on efforts to hold leaders accountable, the president and CEO of The Associated Press said.
Gary Pruitt told the 69th General Assembly of the Inter American Press Association on Saturday that the U.S. Justice Department’s secret seizure of records of thousands of telephone calls to and from AP reporters in 2012 is one of the most blatant violations of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution the 167-year-old news cooperative has ever encountered.
The Justice Department action involving the AP resonated far beyond the U.S., including Latin America, where journalists for decades have fought to exercise press freedoms under authoritarian regimes, Pruitt said.
“The actions by the Department of Justice could not have been more tailor-made to comfort authoritarian regimes who want to suppress the news media. ‘The United States does it too,’ they can say,” Pruitt said.
What more is there to say about an administration that approaches the people’s right to know like a third world dictator would? And yet even with these revelations, this man continues to be sheltered and promoted by many journalists in the American press. Now we have to wonder, is their support an indication that they share his plans for fundamental transformation of America or is it that they have been intimidated into virtual silence and acquiescence?