NYT Reporters Sue DHS Over FOIA Documents
Two reporters for The New York Times have sued the Department of Homeland Security after they were questioned at an airport as they headed to overseas assignments, The Associated Press reports.
The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit was filed Wednesday. Writers Mac William Bishop and Christopher Chivers said in the lawsuit that employees of the department responsible for securing U.S. borders subjected them to questioning last May as they prepared to board an international flight, the article says.
The reporters were preparing to leave New York for Turkey to report on the war in Syria at the time.
“We want to be sure that our journalists are not being targeted by DHA for special scrutiny or having their activities monitored by the government when they are engaged in reporting,” said David McCraw, vice president and assistant general counsel for The New York Times, in a statement. “DHS has failed to provide adequate responses to our FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests seeking whatever information DHS employees were working from in initiating the questioning and whatever information they gathered in the questioning.”
According to the lawsuit, Bishop was questioned again when he returned two weeks later. Bishop, a frequent international traveler and former U.S. Marine Corps infantryman, was told by the government that Homeland Security had no records pertaining to him.
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