Peace Pact on War Coverage

By Janice Castro

New press guidelines return to tried and true principles

In the midst of the furor over the exclusion of American reporters from the military operation in Grenada last fall, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger appointed a 14-member panel to draft guidelines for press access to future combat situations. Chaired by retired Army Major General Winant Sidle, the commission consisted of journalists and military public information officers. Last week Weinberger released their report and announced that the proposed guidelines are being put into effect. He also said he will appoint a permanent panel of journalists to assist in planning for news coverage of future military conflicts. Said he: "By forming such a committee, I wish to ensure that the media's viewpoint can be expressed in our highest councils on a continuing basis."

Chief among the Sidle commission's concerns was preserving the right of the press to cover combat "to the maximum degree possible consistent with mission security and the safety of U.S. forces." When reporters were barred from Grenada, the Pentagon argued that protecting lives, including those of the correspondents, was more important than keeping the American public fully in formed. Journalists protested that they had taken risks along with troops ever since the Civil War and had respected news embargoes when necessary to protect the secrecy of military plans and the lives of U.S. service men. "No commander is ever going to want you to take the seat of a soldier or to take the space of a box of ammunition," noted Pentagon Spokesman Michael Burch last week. The solution, he said, is better planning at the Pentagon so that journalists do not unduly burden field commanders. The new guidelines direct the armed services to provide adequate transportation and other assistance to war correspondents.

At the heart of the new provisions is a system for "pool coverage," which news organizations have long used whenever the number of journalists at a scene must be limited. Those in the designated pool then have the responsibility to share their notes and pictures with other reporters. According to Burch, the Pentagon will soon establish a rotating pool of combat-ready correspondents who can be reached round the clock if military action is imminent. These journalists would be obliged to keep this information secret even from their own superiors until the operation was safely under way.

Although most news executives who testified before the Sidle commission agreed that the Pentagon should specify which wire services, newspapers, newsmagazines and broadcast networks would participate in such a pool, they insisted on reserving the right to choose which of their reporters would represent them, a condition the Pentagon has yet to accept. Even an arrangement such as that would not guarantee press access to all military actions. Said Burch: "The decisions have to be made on a case-by-case basis."

Most of the journalists strongly opposed a suggestion that the Defense Secretary accredit in advance all reporters and photographers who cover combat situations. They also objected to a proposal that U.S. citizenship be a requirement for battlefield correspondents representing U.S. news organizations, a rule that might have prevented ABC Anchorman Peter Jennings, a Canadian citizen, from covering the Viet Nam War between 1965 and '68.

Many details are yet to be hammered out. Perhaps the principal accomplishment of the Sidle commission was simply to get the Pentagon and the press talking again. "I think there is a general recognition that things should have been done differently in Grenada," concluded longtime Associated Press Pentagon Correspondent Fred Hoffman. Said John MacLean, Washington news editor for the Chicago Tribune: "It's good that they sat down and had both military and press people express their feelings. It remains to be seen how it works out in practice." The commission's report summed up the situation: "An adversarial relationship between the media and the Government, including the military, is healthy and helps guarantee that both institutions do a good job. The appropriate media role [is] neither that of a lap dog nor an attack dog, but rather a watchdog." --By Janice Castro. Reported by Ross H. Munro/Washington

With reporting by Ross H. Munro/Washington