It's Easier for Reporters to Get Embed

By: Joe Strupp The Pentagon's journalist embedding effort in Iraq, which began as a strict program limiting reporters to specific slots with military units, banning movement between units, and barring reporters from returning to units once they'd left, has loosened its rules in recent months, according to military officials. Today, the 35 or so media representatives still embedded are allowed to jump from group to group, embed for shorter periods of time -- and essentially come and go as they please.

Among those who have used the more flexible embedding program is the Los Angeles Times, which has embedded at least three reporters for short stints since July. "It has been very useful," Times Foreign Editor Marjorie Miller told E&P Online.

"In post-conflict [Iraq] a different set of circumstances are in place," said Major Peter Mitchell, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Florida, which oversees the embedding program. "There is a different face on the mission and operational security is not as critical as it was. There is more flexibility."

At one point, more than 700 reporters, photographers, and other media personnel were embedded with troops in and around Baghdad. Since the official war ended in May, fewer journalists have sought embedded posts, with less than two dozen in such positions in July.

But the number of embedded reporters increased to an average of 35 each day in early August, said Mitchell, after the Pentagon decided to allow more flexible embedding. Although media organizations must still seek embedded positions through the Coalition Press Center in Baghdad, which conducts the same security reviews that were done during the war, the assignments are more fluid. "They go for a few days, for a few weeks, or a few hours," said Mitchell. "The reporters are not under the same extensive rules that they were under."

Each unit commander, however, still has the discretion to allow or disallow embedded reporters, depending upon each unit's specific security needs, Mitchell said. He also added that individual units can set their own guidelines for a reporter's length of visit or access.