New guidelines in a US military war manual might change the rules for reporters covering conflicts, but it remains to be seen how the Pentagon is to implement the new policy.
Media watchdog organizations have expressed shock and concern that reporters could be treated as “unprivileged belligerents” under the US Department of Defense’s new Law of War Manual, which provides guidance for US commanders and others.
The Pentagon has insisted it “supports and respects the vital work that journalists perform,” but some media advocates see too much room for maneuver in the guidelines.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) joined other organizations this past week in expressing concern, sending a letter to US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, urging consultations on the issue.
In the letter to Carter, the Paris-based group said it was concerned that journalists could lose “privileged” status in combat areas merely by “the relaying of information,” which, according to the guidelines, “could constitute taking a direct part in hostilities.”
“This terminology leaves too much room for interpretation, putting journalists in a dangerous situation,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said in the letter.
Deloire said governments “have a duty to protect journalists covering armed conflicts” under a UN resolution and that his group was “disappointed that this manual takes a step in the wrong direction.”
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists last month expressed similar concerns, saying the Pentagon “has produced a self-serving document that is unfortunately helping to lower the bar” for press freedom.
The New York Times, in an editorial this month, called for the repeal of provisions affecting media, warning they would make the work of journalists covering armed conflict “more dangerous, cumbersome and subject to censorship.”
The newspaper said the rules could put reporters in the same category assigned to guerrillas or members of al-Qaeda.
Treating journalists as potential spies, the newspaper argued, feeds into the propaganda of authoritarian governments that attempt to discredit Western journalists by falsely accusing them of espionage.
Heidi Kitrosser, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Minnesota, who follows issues of free speech and government secrecy, agreed on the potential for curbing press freedoms.
“The breadth of the manual’s language and its potential applications is alarming,” she said.
She added that the shift “is troubling for its conflict with US constitutional principles and also for its potential invoking by authoritarian regimes to support their own suppression of journalists.”
Steven Aftergood, who monitors US government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, said implementation of the policy would be critical, adding that it merely codifies existing practices and laws.
“A lot depends on how those laws are interpreted in practice,” Aftergood said. “What seems clear is that extreme positions on either side of the issue are mistaken. In other words, total suppression of news coverage of war is obviously unacceptable, but so is the notion of absolute press freedom.”
“There are likely to be legitimate battlefield secrets that the military is within its rights to protect, but how to navigate between those extreme positions is less clear and is hard to state in the abstract,” he added.
“In the US, at least, constitutional values should lead us to favor freedom of the press,” he said.
The Pentagon said some elements of the manual might have been misconstrued, but that it was willing to work to allay any concerns.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not