Group says reporters in Afghanistan monitored - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Group says reporters in Afghanistan monitored

BRUSSELS — The International Federation of Journalists complained Wednesday that journalists covering the war in Afghanistan are being monitored by the U.S. military to see whether they are sympathetic to the American cause.

The federation said journalists seeking to travel under the protection of U.S. forces in Afghanistan may be screened first by an American public relations firm to see if their coverage portrays the military in a positive light.

“This profiling of journalists further compromises the independence of media,” Aidan White, general secretary of the Brussels-based federation, said in a statement.

“It strips away any pretense that the Army is interested in helping journalists to work freely,” the federation statement said.

The complaint followed the publication Monday of an article in the editorially independent Defense Department newspaper Stars and Stripes, reporting that journalists were being screened by The Rendon Group, a Washington-based public relations company.

Military denies report

The U.S. command in Afghanistan has denied the report in Stars and Stripes.

“We don’t operate that way,” said Wayne Shanks, chief of public affairs for International Security Assistance Forces-Afghanistan. “We see what reporters want, try to accommodate them and see what they publish — good and bad. ... The information is not used to determine whether an embed will be granted.”

Shanks confirmed in an e-mailed response to questions that The Rendon Group performs background profiles on reporters seeking embeds — as was reported Aug. 24 by Stars and Stripes. But he said the information gathered is not used to determine whether an embed will be granted.

“This is simple research that anyone would use to prepare for an important meeting,” Shanks said.

Controversy swirls around The Rendon Group, which, as Stars and Stripes noted, helped create the Iraqi National Congress, an opposition group reportedly funded by the CIA that furnished much false information about Iraq’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction. That information fueled the Bush administration’s argument for war but subsequently was widely debunked by investigators, including the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Defense officials acknowledge that they sometimes have to choose one reporter over another given space limitations at a particular time. That call, said Air Force Lt. Col. Edward Sholtis, public affairs adviser to Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is typically made in favor of larger news organizations but also reporters who have a reputation for accuracy.

But the so-called “positive” or “negative” bent of a given story or body of work is not a consideration in granting access, said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, who as deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs provides media policy guidance for the Defense Department’s worldwide public affairs community.

“There is no policy that stipulates that embedding should be based in any way on a person’s work,” Whitman said. “The only measure or standard around here is whether an article is accurate.”

Space considerations aside, no one is summarily excluded from embedding, whether they work for an accredited news organization or for themselves. Said Shanks, “We accredit all reporters, bloggers included.”

“Officially, Headquarters ISAF supports transparency in its operations and does not deny embed or other opportunities to reporters as a result of biographical information beyond simple judgments on professional qualifications,” Sholtis said in a separate e-mail. “I think that you will find in his first two months of command that Gen. McChrystal has been both frank and accessible to the press, and he inculcates this attitude among his subordinate commanders within the necessary constraints of operational security and specific national policies.”

Whitman said it was his understanding that the U.S. command in Afghanistan formerly graded stories but that the practice ended when the new U.S. Forces Afghanistan organization was stood up in October.

‘No such policy exists’

Shanks said simply, “No such policy exists,” adding that he was unaware of whether a previous such policy existed.

Sholtis said that from a public affairs perspective, it’s important to understand where a reporter is coming from when preparing for a visit or interview.

Like reporters, “good [public affairs officers] don’t walk into a media engagement blind,” Sholtis said in his e-mail response. “Some level of research is prudent and, when done properly, benefits both the military (by making personnel feel more prepared and thus comfortable with an open conversation) and reporters (by pitching the conversation to their known background and experience).”

American affiliates of the international journalists federation joined in protesting the screening.

Roberta Reardon, president of the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, whose members include broadcast journalists, said: “If the military pre-approves only certain journalists to report a specific point of view or agenda, our decisions cannot be made independently or freely, and that threatens our democracy.”

Bernie Lunzer, president of the Newspaper Guild, called the screening of journalists “over the line” and said it erodes “the ability to report the truth objectively and without government censorship.”

The International Federation of Journalists represents more than 600,000 journalists in 123 countries.