Civilian Editors to Be Hired for Stars & Stripes

The Pentagon eventually will replace the military editors of the armed services newspaper Stars & Stripes with civilians, a Defense Department spokesman said Monday.

The development follows a recommendation made last year in a study by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress that said it found evidence of censorship and improper management at the government-run daily.

“When the current military editors retire, it is our intention to put civilians in there,” Defense Department spokesman Pete Williams said in an interview.

Williams, who said he couldn’t give a specific time for the change, said the Pentagon also was “looking into” the possible financial and editorial consolidation of the newspaper’s two editions.

Allegations Examined

A Pentagon source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the switch was expected to occur within several years.

Both the European and Pacific editions of Stars & Stripes, originally designed to serve as a hometown paper for U.S. forces overseas, have been plagued in recent years by allegations of censorship and employee harassment.

A Pentagon-appointed ombudsman has been in the Pacific for two weeks looking into the allegations. Philip M. Foisie, formerly of the Washington Post, was named to the new ombudsman position last summer.

The GAO, assisted by the Society of Professional Journalists, reported last year that it found evidence of censorship and improper management. The agency also said the editor-in-chief should be a civilian with solid journalism credentials.

The House Armed Services Committee, in the defense authorization bill report for fiscal 1990, agreed that the editor should have solid journalistic credentials but stopped short of calling for a civilian.

Serving Two Masters

The GAO investigation was launched last year at the request of then-Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.)

“The good news is for the thousands of military personnel and their dependents overseas, because the credibility of one of their primary sources of news will be greatly enhanced,” said Paul McMasters, national freedom of information chairman for the Society of Professional Journalists and deputy editorial director for USA Today.

“They were trying to serve two masters and it was an impossible duty,” McMasters said about the military editors.

Williams said a national accounting firm is, at the request of the GAO and Congress, studying whether the financial consolidation would be beneficial.

“We want to do what is best for the paper. . . . We take any allegations of censorship very seriously,” said Williams, the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.

Defense Department regulations prohibit censorship “unless the military chain of command determines that the information would affect military security or the health and welfare of the troops,” Williams said.

“Censorship is not allowed just because some news is embarrassing. The rules are very clear.”

The allegations of censorship and harassment of employees who complained to Congress have caught the attention of several lawmakers, including Rep. Barbara Boxer, (D-Calif.), who last month called the problem an “intolerable situation.”

Although frequently referred to as one newspaper, the Stars & Stripes is published in separate editions by largely autonomous bureaus in West Germany and Japan.

The papers are staffed by military as well as civilian journalists, but both papers are led by an officer who holds the title commander and editor-in-chief. Those officers report to the heads of the European and Pacific Commands.