National Security Archive Update, February 26, 2009
The Obama Administration Lifts Blanket Ban on Media Coverage of the
Return of Fallen Soldiers. The policy changed 18 years after
Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney firstbanned news media from covering
honor ceremonies at Dover Air Force Base
Washington, DC, February 26, 2009 - Today Secretary of Defense Robert
Gates lifted a blanket ban on news media coverage of the honor guard
ceremonies that mark the return of military casualties from abroad. The
new policy will permit media coverage of the ceremonies, during which
caskets draped with American flags are brought home from war, after
consultation with the families of the fallen. The Obama administration's
move restores press access to the honor ceremonies, which had been the
practice from World War II through the Panama invasion of 1989. During
the lead-up to the Gulf War in 1991, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney
instituted the ban. The news media lost a first amendment challenge to
the ban, but Professor Ralph Begleiter and the National Security Archive
forced the release of hundreds of images taken by military photographers
under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 2005.
Professor Begleiter, the long-time CNN correspondent who is the
Rosenberg Professor of Communications and Distinguished Journalist in
Residence at the University of Delaware, filed the lawsuit with the
National Security Archive in 2004 to compel release of DOD's own images
of the honor ceremonies under the FOIA. Once it became clear that the
government had no basis for withholding the images under the FOIA, the
military stopped taking photos documenting the return of fallen
soldiers.
"This reversal of two decades of policy is an important and welcome
milestone for the American people. This decision restores to its
rightful, honorable place the immense value of the sacrifice American
troops make on behalf of their nation," said Professor Begleiter. "The
Pentagon's reversal of the news media ban should also result in the
military itself returning immediately to documenting with its own
photographers the honorable return of war casualties -- and making those
images public. That public documentation by the government should not be
subject to anyone's veto."
"Dick Cheney's original ban on media coverage in the lead-up to the Gulf
War was clearly meant to hide the cost of war. It reversed decades of
respectful open media access," explained Tom Blanton, the Archive's
director. "The release of honor ceremony photos in 2005 shows how
respectful treatment of fallen soldiers was, and we expect the media
coverage to be similarly respectful."
Archive general counsel Meredith Fuchs commented, "Overturning a DOD
policy that dates back 18 years while trying to ensure the respect that
we owe to the fallen is a real change in policy by the Obama
administration."
Visit the Web site of
the National Security Archive for more information.
THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental
research institute and library located at The George Washington
University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes
declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government
funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations
from foundations and individuals.01/03/2009 03:53 PM
