Citizenfour director Laura Poitras has filed a lawsuit against the United States government, alledging she was targeted for 'harassment' at US and international airports.
Poitras claims between 2006 and 2012, when she was travelling extensively for her documentary work, she was detained every time she returned to the US.
“I’m filing this lawsuit because the government uses the US border to bypass the rule of law,” said Poitras in a statement published on the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) website. EFF is representing Poitras in the case.
The statement outlines she was subjected to lengthy detentions and was searched on more than 50 occasions.
“This simply should not be tolerated in a democracy. I am also filing this suit in support of the countless other less high-profile people who have also been subjected to years of Kafkaesque harassment at the borders. We have a right to know how this system works and why we are targeted.”
Last year, Poitras filed freedom of information requests seeking records which had been mentioned to her in order to justify the scrutiny at border checkpoints. For example, that she was named on the US 'No Fly List'. The records were not forthcoming, and this court case is an attempt to be awarded access to these documents.
According to the statement, the detentions stopped after journalist Glenn Greenwald, who is featured in Citizenfour, published an article detailing the treatment.
Poitras won an Academy Award this year for the Citizenfour documentary about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
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