Media Access During the Persian Gulf War

Asst. Secretary Williams spoke as part of the Society of Professional Journalists' Freedom of Information Day. He talked about the government's imposition of restrictive war time policy on the release of information during the Persian Gulf. He discussed how and what type of information was released to the press. The history of access to military information was discussed. Topics included press pools, press escorts, and military briefings. He spoke of two myths that have arisen over Persian Gulf war coverage: reporters did not do a good job of covering the war and reporters did not have much of a chance to cover the war.