In a major policy shift, US govt will no longer seize journalists’ records

The US justice department said on Saturday it no longer will secretly obtain reporters’ records during leak investigations, a policy shift that abandons a practice decried by news organisations and press freedom groups.

The reversal follows a pledge last month by President Joe Biden, who said it was “simply, simply wrong” to seize journalists’ records and that he would not permit the justice department to continue the practice. Though Biden’s comments in an interview were not immediately accompanied by any change in policy, a pair of statements from the White House and justice department on Saturday signalled an official turnabout from an investigative tactic that has persisted for years.

Democratic and Republican administrations have used subpoenas and court orders to obtain journalists’ records in an effort to identify sources who reveal classified information.

But the practice had received renewed scrutiny over the past month as justice department officials alerted reporters at three news organisations - The Washington Post, CNN and The New York Times - that their phone records had been obtained in the final year of the Trump administration.

The latest revelation came on

Friday when the Times reported the existence of a gag order that had barred the newspaper from revealing a secret court fight over efforts to obtain the email records of four reporters.

That tussle had begun during the Trump administration but had persisted under the Biden justice department, which later moved to withdraw the gag order.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said no one at the White House was aware of the gag order until Friday night, but that broadly, “the issuing of subpoenas for the records of reporters in leak investigations is not consistent with the President’s policy direction to the department”.

Justice department spokesman Anthony Coley said that “in a change to its longstanding practice”, the department “will not seek compulsory legal process in leak investigations to obtain source information from members of the news media doing their jobs”.

He added, “The department strongly values a free press, protecting First Amendment values, and is committed to taking all appropriate steps to ensure the independence of journalists.”

In ruling out “compulsory legal process” for reporters in leak investigations, the department also appeared to say that it won’t force journalists to reveal in court the identity of their sources.