Rumsfeld's Press Crackdown
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. These restrictions aren't taken lightly. To ensure compliance, journalists are "escorted everywhere while on base and some were monitored as they went to the restroom." Eugene Fidel, a military law expert, "said he has never heard of restrictions against talking to soldiers," calling such limitations "crazy."
RUMSFELD CAN'T IGNORE THE CONSTITUTION: Just because it's the military doesn't mean the First Amendment doesn't apply. The judge can close (or partially close) a proceeding to outside observers, but "[t]his can be done only after finding no reasonable alternative will safeguard [a compelling] interest and after providing for a narrow closure based on specific findings that can be reviewed on appeal." In this case "[n]o public hearing was held, no showing was made and no judicial findings were rendered to justify press restrictions of any sort." Moreover, applying these restrictions only to journalists is an unconstitutional "content-based form of restriction of speech."
MILITARY REPORTERS STAND UP: Military Reporters & Editors (MRE), the official association of military journalists, has written a letter to Secretary Rumsfeld demanding that "the Department of the Army rescind these constraints and assure that similar restrictions will not be imposed elsewhere." When the Department of Defense was contacted, "a spokesman declined to comment on the letter, saying he did not know if Rumsfeld had received it." The MRE said it is "prepared to go to court to force an end to the military's decision in this case to require journalists to sign agreements that limit their ability to perform their jobs under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution."
NOT AN ISOLATED INCIDENT: This isn't the first time Rumsfeld has cracked down on journalists trying to cover a military trial. Trista Tallton, a military affairs reporter, "says she ran into similar restrictions when she covered the court martial of a Marine accused of accidentally killing several people when his plane clipped the wires of a cable car in Italy ." According to Tallton the latest restrictions are part of a pattern designed to "keep the media under control."
RUMSFELD 2005, MEET RUMSFELD 1966: Once upon a time, Donald Rumsfeld respected freedom of the press. Speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives on March 13, 1966, he said: "Mr. Speaker, a recent speech by Presidential Aid Bill D. Moyers admonished the Nation's newsmen to appreciate that only the 'purest motives' govern the actions and statements of the executive branch of the Federal Government. Such advice, if heeded, would be heeded by the naïve and nondiscriminating. Citizens and the press will continue to question, to investigate, to doubt, and to seek the truth." Now, Rumsfeld is imposing rules that prevent the media from finding the truth. What a difference 40 years makes.
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=616769