Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has never enjoyed a warm and cooperative relationship with the national media, but as Think Progress noted this morning, there’s apparently still more room to make the relationship worse.
Government restrictions on media access can, in limited circumstances, be justifiable. If reporters’ lives are in jeopardy in a combat area, for example, the Pentagon may take steps to keep them safe. If there’s a classified briefing with national security at stake, reporters aren’t allowed in the room.
But the restrictions placed on the media covering Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar at Fort Bragg, N.C., don’t seem to make a lot of sense.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has launched the latest attack in the administration’s war on a free and independent media. The Pentagon is requiring reporters covering the court-martial of U.S. Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar at Fort Bragg, N.C., to “sign agreements that limit their ability to perform their jobs under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
In order to gain access to the proceeding, reporters must “pledge to not interview soldiers at Fort Bragg about the case or ask legal advisors in the media room to speculate on the outcome.” Reporters who don’t sign aren’t allowed to cover the case.
The Akbar case is a tragic story of an American soldier convicted of murdering two officers in a grenade attack against other U.S. troops. National security secrets do not appear to be part of the proceedings, the judge in the case has not closed the courtroom to outsiders, and Rumsfeld has not yet offered an excuse for the crack down on reporters’ First Amendment rights.
Not surprisingly, a group of journalism organizations led by Military Reporters & Editors is outraged.
“The danger of such restrictions should be obvious and must be fought,” MRE President Sig Christenson. This matter is also a core value for MRE, which was formed in large part over concerns about access issues in the United States and abroad, particularly in war zones, he said. “We wanted to inform you of our activities and position, and ask for your support,” he wrote in the letter to the defense secretary.
The Military Reporters & Editors detailed some stunning restrictions. As the group told Rumsfeld, in order to ensure compliance with the policy, journalists are escorted everywhere while on base and some have been monitored as they went to the restroom.
For an administration that’s had some, shall we say, “issues” when it comes to respecting a free and independent media, this isn’t an encouraging development.