Media panel discusses military access

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (UPI) - Cooperation between the military and the media is essential for the media to provide comprehensive coverage of military action, concluded a discussion panel.

Military and media representatives met at the National Press Club to discuss the media's coverage of recent and future United States military action.

The symposium was jointly sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression and the Center for National Security Law from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Robert M. O'Neil, director of the Thomas Jefferson Center, said the forum provided the media and military an opportunity to foster a sense of cooperation between the two groups.

"There's a sense that this is actually constructive dialogue among those who will shape the policies," he said.

The 50 media representatives and a handful of military and government spokesmen met for several roundtable discussions.

Military representatives included Richard Falkenrath, special assistant to the President and Senior Director for Policy and Plans, Office of homeland Security; Larry Mefford, Assistant Director for Counter-terrorism, Federal Bureau of Investigation; Dennis Murphy, Assistant Commissioner for Public affairs, United States Custom Service, and Bryan Whitman, Deputy Assistant secretary for Public Affairs (Media Operations), Department of Defense.

Media speakers included Leonard Downie, Executive Editor of the Washington Post; Peter Copeland, Editor and General Manger, Scripps Howard News Service; and others.

The media must strike a balance between what could be detrimental to National Security and keeping the public informed about what the government is doing, said keynote speaker Steven Roberts, syndicated columnist and Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University.

There is nothing more patriotic than a reporter asking probing questions about what the government is doing, he said.

"Raising those questions, even at the height of conflict, is the highest form of patriotism," he said. "I am troubled by what I see as the culture of secrecy in our presidency."

Roberts said the media has the "absolute, essential responsibility of holding the government to account." A heavy amount of personal responsibility accompanies that task, he said.

Journalists exercising their craft at this time in history must continually seek to balance the needs of national security with the responsibility of reporting the facts American citizens need to know as voters, he said.

During a roundtable discussion, Whitman said that reporters will be given access to the military should the country go to war with Iraq, but limited or censored if the government determines that releasing information will breach national security. In general the military tries to be accommodating to the media, he said.

"I think truth matters. It's got to matter in this conflict, if there is one," he said.