The rules for reporters at Guantánamo Bay change daily. But one stays constant: you can only do your job if there’s a member of the military within earshot. From a McClatchy newspaper group commentary by Carol Rosenberg:
It’s a place where you can go to court only in the custody of a military public affairs officer. Inside, if there’s only one escort — this happened recently — and somebody has to go to the bathroom, every reporter has to leave court, too. It’s a place where a soldier stands over your shoulder, looks in your viewfinder and says ‘Don’t take that picture, I’ll delete it.’
This happened earlier in July. The government censor stands in front of a No Photography sign and says, “New policy, the sign and scene behind are now OK. Have at it.” You take your camera to a shed for a security review a few minutes later and a sergeant says, “Um, ‘No Photography’ signs are forbidden.” “They just told us it was OK,” I say. “For real?” he asks. “For real,” I reply. He deletes it anyway. There was a sliver of concrete in the frame. The fringes of a bunker you’re not allowed to see.
And it’s a place where the Pentagon believes it can tell you not to include in your story the name of a man who outed himself in a newspaper interview in 2008 to clear his name.
“Commentary: For reporters, the rules at Guantanamo change daily” [mcclatchydc.com]
Image: “Guantanamo Bay,” a CC-licensed photo by Kevin Dooley.