McClatchy asks whether US spied on its reporter

[Catherina]

McClatchy asks whether US spied on its reporter
By ANDREW MIGA
— Jul. 30 7:29 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The McClatchy news organization asked National Intelligence Director James Clapper on Tuesday whether U.S. intelligence agencies monitored cellphone calls between a McClatchy freelance reporter and his sources in Afghanistan.

In a letter to Clapper, Anders Gyllenhaal, McClatchy's vice president of news, and Karole Morgan-Prager, vice president, corporate development and general counsel, called the allegations that U.S. intelligence agencies helped target a journalist working for a U.S. news organization "disturbing."

"Absent a well-founded, good faith belief that a journalist is engaged in terrorist activities, compiling and analyzing a journalist's metadata would violate core First Amendment principles, and U.S. law," Gyllenhaal and Morgan-Prager wrote.

They asked Clapper whether any U.S. intelligence agencies helped in the "collection, use or analysis" of any metadata from McClatchy freelancer Jon Stephenson's cellphone while he worked in Afghanistan last year.

...

"We regard any targeted collection of the metadata of our journalists as a serious interference with McClatchy's constitutional rights to gather and report the news," the two McClatchy officials wrote.

Clapper's office had no immediate comment late Tuesday.

...

On Sunday, the Star-Times newspaper of New Zealand reported that the New Zealand military conspired with U.S. spy agencies to monitor Stephenson's communications with sources in Afghanistan. New Zealand officials have denied the allegations.

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http://bigstory.ap.org/article/mcclatchy-asks-if-us-spied-its-reporter

[AnotherMcIntosh]

1. Is the pope catholic?

[Enrique]

2. too bad Clapper has a license to lie n/t

[Wilms]

3. ^

[Mojorabbit]

4. K and R nt