The Defense Department revised rules restricting journalists in reporting from Guantanamo, agreeing not to ask reporters to withhold information deemed privileged but already in the public domain. -db
The New York Times
September 10, 2010
By Jeremy W. Peters
The Pentagon has agreed to revise some of the rules that have restricted what journalists are free to report on from Guantánamo Bay, resolving a conflict that peaked in May when four reporters were expelled from the naval base there.
The military informed news organizations of the new rules on Friday after lengthy discussions between the Pentagon’s public affairs division and lawyers for media outlets including The Associated Press, The New York Times and The Miami Herald.
In a compromise, the public affairs office has agreed not to ask reporters to withhold information that has been deemed privileged by the military if such information has already been in the public domain. This was the central issue in the case involving the four reporters who were barred after they printed the name of a former Army interrogator who was a witness against a Canadian citizen accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan and detained at Guantánamo.
The interrogator’s name had been mentioned in many press accounts of the case, but a military judge had declared his name protected information.
The revised policy now specifies that reporters will not be considered in violation of the rules if what they report “was legitimately obtained” in the course of newsgathering done outside Guantánamo.
The Pentagon has also agreed to work more closely with journalists before deleting photos and video taken at the naval base. Every image brought to Guantánamo on a camera — regardless of whether it was taken there or not — is subject to review by military censors.
But photographers and video journalists will now have a more formal chain of appeal to challenge a decision to delete their material. They will also be allowed to have up to two images a day cropped. Previously any image that ran afoul of the rules was deleted.
The image review process has long been a major source of contention between journalists and public affairs officers because the restrictions have been so unforgiving. For example, any images that showed unmanned guard towers around the detention camps were forbidden, as were any that showed antennas or water towers even if those structures were barely visible.
The new rules state that “deliberate” images of water towers and antennas are off limits.
The Pentagon has also agreed for the first time to allow journalists to formally challenge in writing decisions by the public affairs office. Previously, there was little recourse for journalists if they were denied information from the Pentagon or told they could not report something.
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