PROTECT THE 1st Joins 50+ Civil Liberties Groups To Demand Info on FBI Raid of Journalist’s Home

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An FBI raid on the home of a Tampa-based journalist, and the seizure of his computer, hard drives, cellphone and all they contain, is raising questions about the fidelity of the Department of Justice to a year-old revision to its News Media Policy announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Under that policy, the Department is forbidden from using compulsory legal processes to obtain the newsgathering records of journalists, except in extreme circumstances.
 
Now a wide spectrum of press freedom and civil liberties organizations, including Protect The 1st, are asking the Department of Justice to provide transparency about this FBI raid in May. 

The FBI executed its search warrant at the home of journalist Tim Burke, which he shares with his wife, Tampa city councilwoman Lynn Hurtak. The credibility of this extreme action is highly questionable, leaving the Department to explain how this ransacking of a journalist’s home and seizure of his devices differs from the now-widely ridiculed police raid on a newspaper in rural Kansas.

READ THE LETTER HERE