News organizations appeal Pentagon’s decision to ban reporters from Guantanamo

Reporters Without Borders hopes the appeal filed by McClatchy Newspapers, Canwest and the Toronto Star on May 13th, 2010, will force the US Defense Department to overturn its May 6th decision to ban 4 reporters from those media groups and the Globe and Mail from military commissions at Guantanamo Bay. Colonel Dave Lapan, Director of the Defense Press Operations told Reporters Without Borders that the Department will give full consideration to their appeals. The Pentagon says that Paul Koring (The Globe and Mail), Michelle Shephard (Toronto Star), Stephen Edwards (CanWest) and Carol Rosenberg (McClatchy-owned Miami Herald) violated Guantanamo commission press rules by publishing the name of a witness who testified during a hearing on the conditions surrounding confessions obtained from Canadian detainee Omar Khadr, in 2002. The Defense Department claims journalists were clearly instructed to identify the witness as “interrogator #1”, and has justified the ban by arguing it does not extend to the news organizations, but only to the individual reporters. “The Defense Department’s decision is alarming for many reasons” stated Reporters Without Borders “First, this decision is bureaucratic and not judicial. We remind the Department of Defense that legally, such a sanction has to come from a military tribunal. Then, why impose a gag order on the identity of a witness when it is already a well-documented matter of public record? Reporters who cover hearings at Guantanamo are already subject to extremely tight restrictions, and subjective or politically convenient interpretations of the press ground rules are a threat to public information.” “The fact that the ban will only apply to the 4 journalists in question is far from reassuring. Punishing journalists in this a manner and forcing news organizations to replace experienced correspondents is akin to censorship.” added the press freedom organization. “We urge American officials to repeal the ban and allow the 4 reporters access to future military commission hearings at Guantanamo.” On Thursday, the Miami Herald reported that David A Schulz, the lawyer representing McClatchy, Canwest and the Toronto Star, filed an appeal in which he stated:`The order is mistaken, the remedy is too severe, and the expulsion should be rescinded'', the Herald’s editor Mindy Marques told Reporters Without Borders : “For us, it is a long term issue. Carol Rosenberg has been covering guantanamo longer than any other reporter. We published information that was already widely available. I am really hoping that once the facts are laid down, we can go back quickly to the island”. Although the Globe and Mail is not part of the appeal filed by the three organizations, the Globe's editor-in-chief, John Stackhouse, disputed the decision in a statement released earlier last week."The name in question was a matter of public record. Banning the information now - when it is already known around the world - serves no apparent purpose other than to raise more questions about the credibility of the Guantanamo courts." (Photo : AFP)