Gawker Media said on Monday that authorities in California seized the computers of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen over possession of a prototype Apple phone.

The New York Times has reported that Chen wrote last week about the next generation iPhone it purchased for $5,000 from someone who found it in a bar in San Jose, Calif.

Chen later returned the phone to Apple, after posting a letter requesting Apple simply admit it was theirs, which would validate their reporting on the item.

"Jason is a journalist, who works full time for our company," adding his home office was a "de facto newsroom," Gaby Darbyshire, chief operating officer at Gawker, publishers of the Gizmodo Web site, said.

As such, "under both state and federal law, a search warrant may not be validly issued to confiscate the property of a journalist," Darbyshire said.

Darbyshire further said, "It is abundantly clear under the law that a search warrant to remove these items was invalid. The appropriate method of obtaining such materials would be the issuance of a subpoena." He had arrived at his home Friday evening at 9:45 p. m. and found police officers there who had searched his home "for a few hours already," Chen added. (With Inputs from Agencies)