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May 03, 2007
Military bloggers made to retreat
One of the interesting things about modern technology has been the ability of troops in the field to not only e-mail family and friends (so you can get daily updates on their well being) but the efforts of Milbloggers to report first hand on what they see. This is unique in the annals of the history of warfare.
A new rule reported by Wired suggests that this might be ending:
Military officials have been wrestling for years with how to handle troops who publish blogs. Officers have weighed the need for wartime discretion against the opportunities for the public to personally connect with some of the most effective advocates for the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the troops themselves. The secret-keepers have generally won the argument, and the once-permissive atmosphere has slowly grown more tightly regulated. Soldier-bloggers have dropped offline as a result.The new rules (.pdf) obtained by Wired News require a commander be consulted before every blog update.
"This is the final nail in the coffin for combat blogging," said retired paratrooper Matthew Burden, editor of The Blog of War anthology. "No more military bloggers writing about their experiences in the combat zone. This is the best PR the military has -- it's most honest voice out of the war zone. And it's being silenced."
The reaction of bloggers in general has been negative particularly from military bloggers. Personally I don't know if this has been a security issue, but brighter minds than me will have to make that decision.
Posted by Peter at May 3, 2007 01:06 PM