The Defense Department revised its Law of War Manual to better protect journalists on the battlefield. The manual had stated that journalism was akin to spying and that journalists needed authorization to enter a war zone. It said if correspondents published information useful in combat they would run the risk of aiding the enemy and be targeted for killing. According the Charlie Savage, The New York Times, July 22, 2016, the revisions establish a “different tone.” “It [the revised manual] lauds ‘open and independent reporting’ as vital and does not compare journalists to spies or encourage censorship, saying only that the laws of war do not prohibit states from taking steps to protect sensitive information,” wrote Savage. “And it emphasizes that ‘engaging in journalism does not constitute taking a direct part in hostilities,’ urging efforts to make sure that if reporters meet with enemies for journalistic purposes, commanders do not mistakenly assume they are part of the enemy.”
After the manual came out in 2015, The Defense Department acted in response to complaints from news outlets and journalists to invite them to confer about changes to the manual that would clarify journalists’ role in warfare and provide them with better protection. The revisions made a key concession in reclassifying journalists from “civilians” but in some instances “members of armed forces” and “unprivileged belligerents” to “civilians…protected as such under the law of war.” (Breitbart News, July 25, 2016, by Edwin Mora)