FBI's Impersonation Of Journalists Undermines Press Freedom - Reporters Without Borders

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) practice of imitating journalists and documentary filmmakers hampers the ability of media outlets to gather news, the press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a news release on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) practice of imitating journalists and documentary filmmakers hampers the ability of media outlets to gather news, the press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a news release on Thursday.

"The FBI's impersonation of journalists and filmmakers is of great concern" Margaux Ewen, director of RSF's North America bureau, said in the release. "Any uncertainty regarding a journalist or filmmaker's identity and motives for investigation can seriously hinder the media's news-gathering abilities."

The FBI on October 5 published its guidelines for impersonating journalists and documentary filmmakers after RSF filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit to force the document's release.

Ewen said the FBI's practice threatens reporters who work in hostile countries, because the leaders of such states can use the scheme to apply pressure on the media.

RSF argued in its FOIA lawsuit that the program has already affected the work of two documentary filmmakers - David Byars and Abby Ellis, who submitted signed affidavits saying that the FBI's controversial practice had complicated their jobs.

The US government has been running the impersonation program for decades, but the practice first came under scrutiny in 2014, when then-FBI director James Comey admited that an agent had posed as a reporter for the Associated Press during a criminal investigation. The AP sued the Department of Justice in response, alleging that the FBI had misappropriated the trusted name of the network and and undermined its credibility.