A media coalition is bolstering efforts to challenge the National Security Agency’s National Security Letters program, particularly the non-disclosure provision that they claim constitutes prior restraint of journalists reporting about the program. The FBI routinely issues the letters to phone companies and Internet service providers with non-disclosure orders gagging them from discussing the letters. (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, April 9, 2014, press release)
Slightly over a year ago, Google filed a petition in the U.S. District Court in Northern California to challenge the gag order that accompanies National Security Letters. The company is concerned about the lack of transparency and slack oversight of the government orders. (Wired, April 4, 2013, by Kim Zetter)
Four journalists were honored in New York City last week for their work in reporting the leak of information on NSA’s mass surveillance by former CIA contractor Edward Snowden. Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian, and Barton Gellman, The Washington Post, shared the George Polk Award for National Security Reporting. (Democracy Now, April 14, 2014)