Frustrated over leaks from within the Pentagon to the media, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has instructed all Department of Defense personnel to go through public affairs officials before speaking with reporters.

 

Both in July and again this month, Gates and a subordinate have issued memos reminding civilian and military workers in the department that “all media activities must be coordinated through appropriate public affairs channels,” adding the “policy is all too often ignored.”

 

“We have far too many people talking to the media outside of channels, sometimes providing information which is simply incorrect, out of proper context, unauthorized, or uninformed…,” wrote Gates.

 

In the latest memo, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Douglas B. Wilson warned not just against the release of classified material, but made it clear that anyone who releases “pre-decisional information to the press without authorization…will be held accountable.”

 

Steven Aftergood, who runs the Secrecy News blog for the Federation of American Scientists, responded to the media crackdown by noting “almost everyone understands that freedom of the press means something more, and something different, than reproducing authorized government releases.”

 

He added that “Unauthorized disclosures—even incomplete or partially inaccurate ones—often serve a valuable public policy function, at least when they do not trespass on legitimate secrets, because they enable reporters and others to develop an independent account of events and to generate a more complete public record.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Pentagon Seeks “Coordination” of Media Activities (by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News)

Release of Official Information Memo (by Douglas B. Wilson, Department of Defense) (pdf)