The Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000

Dear Mr. Secretary:

On behalf of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Newspaper Association of America, we write to express our views on the importance of open and independent reporting of the War on Terrorism.

Though other media organizations have expressed many views we support on matters of press-military relations, as the nation's largest organizations representing editors and publishers, we thought it important to outline a number of issues that are of particular concern to newspaper journalists.

Most urgently, we believe it is important for you to make a clear statement of support of open coverage by formally adopting as policy the Statement of Principles on News Coverage of Combat that were agreed to by our organization and seven others following dialogue with Pentagon in 1992. These principles subsequently were adopted as policy by then-Secretary Cheney and by all succeeding defense secretaries.

Such unambiguous support of the Statement of Principles communicated by you through the chain of command will keep the press and public on course to fully understanding this critical chapter in our nation's history. As you have said, it is important that the American people hear the truth from their government. We heartily endorse that view.

With those issues in mind, we would respectfully request that the Department of Defense take the following additional steps to help make certain the public is well informed at a time when reliable information is so important:

· In the spirit of the 1992 Pentagon guidelines, continue an open dialogue with members of the media to establish any special provisions required by the nature of this conflict.

· Recognize the limited role that pool coverage should play, and make all possible use of the tradition of embedding reporters with combat troops.

· Respect the news media's position on prior security review, particularly in a conflict where so much misinformation is coming from foreign sources. Our members, in turn, reaffirm in the strongest terms their responsibility to protect the security interests of the armed forces as a part of our reporting on the war.

· Recognize the importance of the inviolate line between government and journalists, who must never be used as intelligence-gathering arms of the government.

· Recognize the growing pressure for immediacy in reporting by enabling the timely transmission of reports and the technical needs of a media now dependent on uplinks and bandwidth to perform its role.

As you are, we are most interested in ensuring that the public is informed and well served. Please let us know if you need clarification or further information about any matters raised in this letter. We are thankful for your consideration and understanding. And we urge you to please call on us if we can be of service.

Sincerely,

Tim J. McGuire, President, American Society of Newspaper Editors

Orage Quarles III, Chairman, Newspaper Association of America