Virginia Press Association encourages member publications to contact Attorney General Eric Holder

Virginia Press Association Executive Director Ginger Stanley sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole requesting the Department of Justice "immediately return" the telephone toll records obtained by the department and destroy all copies, as requested by The Associated Press.

The VPA encourages its members to draft similar letters and send them to the Department of Justice.

The department seized two months' worth of telephone records of Associated Press journalists as part of a year-long investigation into the disclosure of classified information about a failed al-Qaeda plot last year.

The Washington Post reported Monday that the AP's president said federal authorities obtained cellular, office and home telephone records of individual reporters and an editor; AP general office numbers in Washington, New York and Hartford, Conn.; and the main number for AP reporters covering congress.

On Tuesday, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole calling for the immediate return "the telephone toll records obtained and destroy all copies, as requested by The Associated Press."

Holder on Tuesday defended his department's actions.

Read the VPA's letter