National security journalists are banding together to resist government efforts to stifle their reporting. Journalists subject to spying find it challenging to protect their sources and get the story, but they are beginning to strike back. The Committee to Protect Journalists is circulating a petition to get the Obama administration to back off and recognize the free press rights and duties of journalists to work free of government surveillance and tampering. (Center for Democracy & Technology, October 30, 2014, by Rita Cant)
Just last week, it was revealed that the FBI used a fake Associated Press article to trick a school bombing suspect into giving away his location. An AP spokesman objected to the trick, “This ploy violated AP’s name and undermined AP’s credibility.” (The Washington Post, October 28, 2014, by Ellen Nakashima and Paul Farhi)
In her book Stonewalled, CBS correspondent Sharyl Atkisson reported that the federal government tampered with her computer. According to her source from inside the administration, “…one intrusion was launched from the WiFi at a Ritz Carlton Hotel and [Atkisson] said ‘the intruders discovered my Skype account handle, stole the password, activated the audio, and made heavy use of it, presumably as a listening tool.’” (The Washington Post, October 27, 2014, by Erik Wemple)