By: Joe Strupp Stars and Stripes, the independent military newspaper, reports today it has been barred from embedding with a U.S. Army unit in Mosul, Iraq. A story in the Wednesday edition, which is online now, contends the restriction is due to military officials' view that the paper's Iraq coverage has failed to include "good news."
The president of the Military Reporters and Editors group has blasted the move in an email to E&P.
"Asserting that Stars and Stripes 'refused to highlight' good news in Iraq that the U.S. military wanted to emphasize, Army officials have barred a Stripes reporter from embedding with a unit of the 1st Cavalry Division that is attempting to secure the violent city of Mosul," the report says.
It adds that Stripes reporter Heath Druzin, who covered operations of the division's 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team in February and March, would not be permitted to rejoin the unit for another reporting tour. It also adds that military officials cited a March 8 story Druzin wrote that stated many Iraqi residents of Mosul would like the American soldiers to leave and return security tasks to Iraqi forces.
"Despite the opportunity to visit areas of the city where Iraqi Army leaders, soldiers, national police and Iraqi police displayed commitment to partnership, Mr. Druzin refused to highlight any of this news," Major Ramona Bellard, a public affairs officer, wrote in denying Druzin's embed request, according to the story.
Check out Stars and Stripes' report,
here.
Military Reporters and Editors President Ron Martz, himself a former Iraq embed, blasted the Pentagon decision in an e-mail to E&P.
"The reasons for barring Heath Druzin from this embed seem specious at best. Army officials in general and the commander of the 1st Cavalry Division's 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team appear to have violated both the spirit and the letter of the embed guidelines that Military Reporters & Editors and many other journalists have worked so diligently to implement since long before the initial invasion of Iraq in March 2003," he writes in part.
Martz, who also wrote a formal letter from MRE to the Pentagon about the issue, went on to state: "These actions raise the question of just how committed the Army, the 1st Cavalry Division and the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team are to allowing journalists to do their work and tell the true story of the situation in Iraq.
"The Army and its individual commanders should not be in the business of making editorial decisions but that is what appears to have happened here. These actions are both unconscionable and unacceptable and MRE condemns them in the strongest possible terms."
Martz's letter to Pentagon public affairs officials -- which he also sent to Gen. David Petraeus, Chief of Staff George Casey, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates -- is below:
**********************************
23 June 2009
Bryan Whitman
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs
1400 Defense Pentagon
Washington, D.C. 20301-1400
Dear Mr. Whitman:
The recent decision by the U.S. Army and the commander of the 1st Cavalry Division's 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team to bar Stars and Stripes reporter Heath Druzin from embedding with the unit in Iraq is unacceptable.
Military Reporters & Editors condemns this action in the strongest possible terms.
There is absolutely no evidence to indicate that Mr. Druzin in any way compromised the unit's operational security or put American forces at risk with his reporting.
Barring this reporter from an embed for what appear to be specious reasons violates both the spirit and the letter of the embed guidelines that Military Reporters & Editors and many other journalists have worked so diligently to implement since long before the initial invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
It appears from the June 24, 2009 Stars and Stripes story about this incident that commander of this unit is attempting to exercise editorial control over what stories are written and how they are written. I am sure I do not have to remind you that it is not the job of military officials to exercise editorial control over any journalists, including Stars and Stripes reporters.
Although Stars and Stripes receives some of its funding from taxpayer dollars, it is an independent newspaper whose reporters and editors follow the same ethical and journalistic guidelines as all other journalists. Stars and Stripes is not an arm of the Army's or DOD's public affairs team and its reporters should not be treated as such.
These recent actions by the commander of the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team raise the troubling question of just how committed the Army and the 1st Cavalry Division are to allowing journalists to do their jobs and tell the true story of the situation in Iraq and the efforts being made by our men and women in uniform.
MRE urges you to take appropriate action to rectify this specific situation and to implement whatever measures are necessary to ensure that this does not happen again either in this unit or in any other unit in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Respectfully,
Ron Martz
President, Military Reporters & Editors
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