OTTAWA - Defence Minister Peter MacKay says he will look into restrictions NATO officials in Kandahar have placed on journalists covering the war in southern Afghanistan.
The security office at Kandahar Airfield has stopped accrediting reporters at the base and only issues them visitor passes, which require they forfeit their passports for duration of their stay and mandates they be escorted by the military.
When the changes were introduced by U.S. security officials, Canadian public-affairs officers were forced to escort newly arrived journalists everywhere on the base, but the practice has since been temporarily suspended.
"Each country examines these decisions independently," MacKay said Wednesday, adding the matter had just been brought to his attention.
The absence of accreditation makes it almost impossible for Canadian journalists to leave the airfield to report independently and then return safely to confines of the base -- something the Opposition and a journalist's organization say is unacceptable.
The accreditation directive was issued by U.S. military officials, who are currently in charge of the security office at Kandahar Airfield.
"As far as I know, there is not a NATO-wide policy and I'm looking into what the Americans are doing versus what we are doing," said MacKay.
Embed program wide and accessible
Canada for the most part has run one of the most open and accessible media embedding programs among the 41 allies fighting in Afghanistan.
Through the Canadian military, NATO officials in Kandahar were asked repeatedly for comment and interviews when the policy change was implemented in early March. The requests were denied.
The Defence Department in Ottawa was also asked this week to explain the rules and how the changes affected the embedding program. Military officials, who have been trying to get the policy reversed, replied they could not answer questions on the record.
On Wednesday, senior officials managing the federal government's Afghan file and speaking on background said the Canadian embassy in Kabul was seeking more information from NATO headquarters in Kabul.
Since the kidnapping of CBC reporter Mellissa Fung last fall, many media organizations in Kandahar have barred their reporters from travelling outside the confines of fortified bases without military protection. Even though Fung was released unharmed, the self-imposed editorial restrictions have remained.
NDP Leader Jack Layton, whose party campaigned to withdraw Canadian troops from Afghanistan, waded into the debate Wednesday.
Regardless of self-imposed restrictions by news organizations, he said the precedent being set is troubling.
The rule changes establish a framework and give NATO a greater ability to clamp down on journalists and stories it doesn't like, Layton said.
"This is the kind of policy that was adopted in Iraq by the Americans; it's the kind of policy we've seen in Sri Lanka and it shouldn't be happening in Kandahar," he said.
It puts embedded journalists, who are already criticized in some quarters for being too much under the military's thumb, on a even more slippery slope, he suggested.
"This should be a no-brainer. The Canadian government should be saying it is important for the freedom of the press and for the truth to come to Canadians."
Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said the Conservative government promised Canadians through the Manley commission report that it would be more forthcoming with information about the war.
He described the rule changes as a step back from that pledge and said there is nothing stopping the introduction of further restrictions.
"That's why it is so unacceptable," said Coderre.
