Schumer's concern over BC case

[caption id="attachment_70603" align="alignright" width="600" caption="Senator Schumer meeting Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Washington last week. "]

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New York's Senator Charles Schumer has written to Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing his concern over the Boston College case and the pursuit by federal prosecutors of archive material stored in the college.

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"I write to express my concern regarding the ongoing efforts on behalf of the United Kingdom to obtain documents and recordings from Boston College Oral History Archive on the Troubles in Northern Ireland pursuant to provisions of the US-UK Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT)," Schumer wrote.

"There are significant issues of journalistic confidentiality and academic freedom that are called into question as a result of this legal maneuver that make it dubious," he said in the letter.

"One issue that is implicated in this case is freedom of the press. I have always been a champion of protecting sensitive source material that is gathered by researchers - journalists and academics alike - and I am concerned that this action presents an infringement on that underpinning of the First Amendment," Schumer wrote.

And he continued in part: "But I am also deeply concerned at the implications this effort has with regard to the peace process. This is a sensitive and delicate process that we should all be mindful to protect."

 

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