"The First Amendment guarantees us freedom of speech and press, but not freedom of Access," Brig. General Andrew Davis, director of PA, U.S. Marine Corps. told about 150 budding PR pros and USC journalism students at the 12th Annual PRSA/LA Kenneth Owler Smith Symposium held April 18.

"In this 'war on terrorism' the greatest tension is between the military and the media. Sixty years ago journalists wore uniforms, but were also subjected to censorship. We couldn't do that today," he said. The event was sponsored by Nike and Manning, Selvage & Lee, Media Distribution Services and the USC Annenberg School for Communications.

Other panelists included: Michael Parks, director USC Annenberg School and former editor, L.A. Times and Norman Pattiz, Voice of America board member and chairman/founder of Westwood One.

"Speaking from my personal view, which is a little different from the military, I believe in the Persian Gulf War access was absolutely controlled," explained Davis.

"What's different in the 'war on terrorism'? Past wars were like a football game. You had a defense and offense, and you had boundary line. For the media it was easier to cover. In terrorism, there are no lines. This is truly the first international war," said Davis.

Davis also admitted that 21st technology has impacted the military's flow of information.

"In the past, the press has relied on the military to beam a satellite feed back to the stations, but today everyone has satellite phones and CNN reporter Christine Amanpour is waiting for us to land our troops. CNN, which has an audience of about 535,000 is allowed in to cover the war, but we should be bringing in the BBC, which has an audience of 300 million globally," he said.

Davis said during the first strike 450 miles out from the Afghanistan war, six reporters were allowed to cover it, and they were even invited in the "war room" of the aircraft carrier the night before.

"Reporters don't know the history of the military, and don't understand the ranking or terminology," he said.

"Truth is the first casualty of war, and war matters, because people died and people want to know everything," said Parks. "Our job as journalists is to gather information and develop opinions. The military gathers information and classifies it. What can we publish? Everything! I'm not talking about troop involvement that endangers lives," said Parks.

"It's all about negotiation between the military and the press. If we had done our job better in the press and if the government had done its job in public affairs, I don't think we would have been so surprised by the events on September 11th," said Parks.

"The relationship between the press and the news media has change over the last century. In the Korean War correspondents wore uniforms. The Persian Gulf and the Afghanistan Wars are different models. Changing technology has also changed the dynamics of war coverage," Parks said.

'It's a war of hearts and minds'

"I look at the Middle East, where we broadcast seven hours day on short wave radio," said Pattiz. "It's not about war, but a war of hearts and minds. I was asked to sit on the board of governors to study the media war in the Middle East. I found disinformation, incite to violence, hate radio and journalist censorship.

"We came up with a plan to bring in sophisticated western broadcast technologies with Voice of America, which broadcasts in 65 languages," he said.

" President Bush came on TV last year and said 'Why do they hate us?' It is because they don't know us and because they get their news from government controlled news," explained Pattiz.

"VOA is not a propaganda organization," he said. "We are supported by taxpayers and we will broadcast where we need to broadcast, unlike CNN that broadcasts in English, we go in 65 languages," he said.

Safety of services is paramount

"In the initial days of the Afghanistan war, the pubic did need to know," said Davis. "However, we are obligated to safeguard the service men and women we serve. The public has the right to know everything, except information that endangers a mission or warriors. Those are daily tough calls. On the eve of the Afghan war six reporters were invited into the top-secret briefing rooms and all withheld information relating to the operation.," reported Davis.

Bill Huey, Strategic Communications, Atlanta (4/24):
Begging your pardon, General Davis (see below), but the statement that the First Amendment does not provide freedom of access to government operations paid for with public funds is specious and erroneous on its face. As a general policy, it reeks.

After all, this country's Supreme Court has ruled that money is speech, because money buys access to communication channels. A wrongheaded but nevertheless rousing defense for access.

As for Israel, it may be a democracy but it obviously does not have an analogue to the First Amendment. Yes, it is a war for hearts and minds, which is probably why the Saudis feel free to confiscate videotape from an NBC newsman (Dr. Bob Arnot) and even take his laptop computer. Do we condemn the Saudis and excuse ourselves, or do we make the difficult choices in favor of free speech? There is no right and wrong here, only choices based on commonly held principles. Unless we uphold those principles the Constitution is nothing more than a fairy tale told to children to keep them quiet at night.

Joel Leyden, Captain (res.), Spokespersons Office, Israel Defense Forces - IsraelPr.com (4/24):
In Israel's war on terrorism, we also experience a good amount of tension between the IDF Spokesperson's Office and the foreign media. We have tons of respect for the many media professionals who are now covering "Operation Defensive Shield."

But that respect, in some cases, turns to disappointment and frustration as TV production teams enter closed military zones. In their chase to be first in the TV ratings war - they jeopardize not only their own personal security but the security of the State.

A closed military zone is established so that the media does not broadcast an army's operations to the enemy. It is a black and white issue called survival.

The response that we hear from many reporters and producers is "we are doing our job." When the IDF starts "doing it's job" by pulling government press cards, confiscating video tape and sending warning shots over the heads of those who enter closed zones - they then complain about "freedom of press" and "what do we have to hide." The irony of the situation here in Israel is that we have absolutely nothing to hide in defending ourselves against barbaric and perverted acts of terrorism. The last thing we want to do is pull someone's credentials and equipment but we do have one thing to hide - the defense elements that translate into more security for our civilian population against Islamic terror suicide attacks.

Israel is a democracy which embraces freedom of the press as much, if not more than the USA but as US Brig. General Andrew Davis writes: "The First Amendment guarantees us freedom of speech and press, but not freedom of Access,".

In war - the media must respect and understand that the rules are different - this is not Hollywood, this is the literal survival of a democracy which is under an extreme physical and direct attack.