Secret U.S. Trawl of AP Calls Decried by Press Groups

Media groups and government watchdogs said the U.S. Justice Department interfered with press freedom when it secretly collected telephone records from Associated Press reporters and editors over a two-month period last year.

The AP disclosed the government’s action in a letter yesterday to Attorney General Eric Holder from Gary Pruitt, the news service’s president and chief executive officer. Pruitt called the collection of phone records at four locations used by reporters a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” of AP’s right to gather news under the U.S. Constitution.