Let us hope that this will apply to all aspects of media coverage…
Hopefully this review is a good sign.
Gates orders review of policy barring military-coffin photos
By The Associated Press
02.11.09
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered a review yesterday of a Pentagon policy banning media from taking pictures of flag-draped coffins of U.S. military dead, signaling he was open to overturning the policy to better honor fallen soldiers.
At least two Democratic senators have called on President Barack Obama to let news photographers attend ceremonies at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and other military facilities when military remains are returned to the United States. Obama told reporters at his Feb. 9 news conference that he was reviewing the ban.
“If the needs of the families can be met, and the privacy concerns can be addressed, the more honor we can accord these fallen heroes, the better,” Gates told reporters at a Pentagon news conference yesterday. “So I’m pretty open to whatever the results of this review may be.”
Gates said he initially asked for the ban to be reviewed a year ago, and was advised then that family members might feel uncomfortable with opening the ceremonies to media for privacy reasons or pressure to attend them despite financial costs.
“I think that looking at it again makes all kinds of sense,” Gates said. “And we will do so, and I’ve put a fairly short deadline on that effort.”
Shortly after Obama took office, Democratic Sens. John Kerry and Frank Lautenberg also asked the White House to roll back the ban that was put in place in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush.
However, some exceptions to the policy were made, allowing the news media to photograph coffins in some cases, until the administration of President George W. Bush and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In a Feb. 9 letter to Obama, Lautenberg said the Pentagon should develop a new policy to allow “respectful” news coverage while protecting the privacy of the victims and their families. Generally, the remains in the caskets are not publicly identified.
“I respectfully urge you to work to bring an end to the misguided policies of the past that seek to hide the sacrifice of our soldiers and the public recognition and pride that should accompany it,” Lautenberg wrote.
He said the Bush administration “effectively censored images of flag-draped caskets from appearing in media coverage.”
A leading military families group says the policy, enforced without exception during the Bush administration should let survivors of the dead decide whether photographers can record their return.
John Ellsworth, president of Military Families United who lost a son in Iraq in 2004, said the survivors should be able to decide whether the coffins should be photographed.