Rules Are Strict for Journalists Covering Gitmo

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL STATION, Cuba (July 1) -- The Pentagon last month barred four reporters from Guantanamo Bay for revealing the name of a witness against the orders of the military judge. The incident sparked renewed attention to the balance between security and transparency at a place that houses what U.S. officials have called the "worst of the worst."

Journalists chaff at the restrictions placed on them here, but the military insists the rules are needed to ensure security.

Some restrictions are straightforward: All pictures and video must be reviewed to ensure they don't violate operational security (photos that reveal, for example, the radar on the island are promptly erased).

But confusion also plagues relations. Sometimes, journalists visiting this week were told by one set of public affairs officers that something was allowed, only to have others claim it was impossible.

It also doesn't help that a near alphabet soup of agencies and military departments is involved in overseeing the detention facilities and military commissions, including:

• The Pentagon, which sets policy for detainee affairs.
• The Navy, which runs the naval base at Guantanamo.
• The Joint Task Force GTMO, which manages the detention facilities.
• The Office of Military Commissions, which runs the trials.

Each agency also has its own media relations personnel, creating a near comical force of public affairs officers that often outnumbers the journalists on the island. On a recent press visit to the base, no fewer than 10 public affairs officers lined up at a welcome briefing to greet nine journalists who arrived to cover a hearing.

The Joint Task Force holds frequent tours for journalists of the detention facilities, but reporters arriving to cover the hearings were told that to see the detention facility, they would have come back on a separate trip. So, the visit offered a cookout on the beach and the chance to watch "The Karate Kid," but precious little access to the subject most journalists came to cover: the 181 detainees still held at Gitmo.

For better or worse, here are a sampling of rules and regulations encountered by journalists on this week's trip to cover a hearing, which was part of the ongoing military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay:

• Representatives of the media must sit at the back of the plane to and from Guantanamo.
• Absolutely no doodling while in the courtroom (note taking, however, is allowed).
• No pictures of of the "expeditionary legal complex" (the new building housing a courtroom used for trials and hearings), and no pictures are allowed inside any of the courtrooms.
• No pictures inside the Guantanamo Bay McDonald's (after several days of discussion, it was determined that pictures of the outside would be acceptable).
• Representatives of the media and non-governmental organizations cannot travel in the same van to and from the hearings.
• No feeding of the iguanas (applies also to non-press).
• No unaccompanied trips to the beach (concertina wire was put up after a few ambitious trial observers purportedly jumped the Jersey barriers).
• At Camp Justice, where journalists stayed, no more than three lines of tents may appear in any one picture.
• Media may jog along an approved path, but only with a reflective belt (presumably applies to non-media as well).
• No pictures of any person on Guantanamo without their express approval.