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IDF impose media curbs during disengagement Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/553143.htmlhttp://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/553143.html
Last update - 10:37 17/03/2005
IDF to impose media curbs during disengagement
By Anat Balint, Haaretz Correspondent
Bracing for a huge media blitz for the July disengagement, Israeli military and government officials will impose curbs on press coverage, declaring the area around the settlenents a closed military zone and "embedding" news crews with IDF units.
IDF Spokesperson Brigadier General Ruth Yaron estimates that some 4,000 members of the foreign press from all around the world will be here in July to cover the disengagement, when around 7,500 settlers will be evacuated from the Gaza Strip's Gush Katif.
If Yaron's forecast holds true, the number of foreign journalists in the country in July will be almost double the number that usually come here to cover dramatic events, such as the Gulf War or Operation Defensive Shield.
As the date of the pullout approaches and media interest increases, the area around the settlements will be declared a closed military zone. From that moment onward, the only individuals who will be allowed to remain in the settlements will be the residents.
The IDF Spokesman's Office stresses that it has no desire to prevent coverage of clashes between settlers and police. "Wherever there are cameras, passions are ignited," Yaron says. "This is not a reason to prevent coverage, but we want them to cover [the events] without stirring up passions."
For the past six months or so, the IDF Spokesman's Office, in cooperation with other governmental elements, has been preparing a comprehensive strategic plan for coverage of the pullout in both the Israeli and the international media.
The IDF Spokesman's Office, the Prime Minister's Office and the National Security Council are operating under two slogans - "Controlled Openness" for the media, and "Evacuating and Embracing" for the settlers.
The time and effort that has been invested in the preparations is evidence of the fundamental change that the spokesman's unit has undergone under Yaron in recent years; but exactly what will be implemented at the time of the pullout remains unclear, as Yaron is slated to leave her post when the new chief of staff takes office - prior to the disengagement.
She is likely to be replaced by Colonel Miri Regev, the chief censor, whom Yaron ousted from the spokesman's unit in the past.
For the purpose of the disengagement's media coverage, the IDF has decided to adopt a similar approach taken by the U.S. Army in Iraq, where members of the press tagged along with the fighting forces.
The IDF's decision stems from the foreseen objective difficulties in the field - thousands of journalists who will be descending on 17 small settlements linked to Israel by one access road, a situation of high tension vis-a-vis the Palestinians, and expected opposition on the part of the settlers - and also a desire to control the way in which the pullout comes across both in Israel and abroad.
"There is recognition and understanding that the media coverage is a very important aspect," Yaron says. "The act itself is, of course, the most important, but how it comes across will be of much significance."
At the same time, two media centers will be set up close to the Gaza Strip. One will be managed by the Government Press Office, which will issue foreign journalists (those who arrive there directly from the airport) with press cards. The second media center will be set up at a distance of some 10 minutes' drive from Gush Katif and will be manned by representatives of the IDF, the Foreign Ministry, the Prime Minister's Office and the Israel Police.
The second center will become a well-equipped base from which journalists and their crews can enter the settlements - but only with the authorization of the security forces, and with an IDF escort. "Reporters will be able to enter and leave the settlements around the clock," Yaron says. "But a journalist will not be permitted to remain in a settlement for 24 hours or for an unlimited time."
All 17 of the settlements will be cordoned off by rings of security forces such that a journalist who enters one of the communities will not be able to move to a different one without first returning to the media center under military escort.
"Groups of journalists will be attached to the various forces, and they will enter the evacuation circles," Yaron explains. "Journalists will have a degree of mobility - when they enter a settlement, they will be allowed to wander freely. The area of each settlement is too small to accommodate all the representatives of the media, and we will have to divide the journalists among them. The main media outlets will be suitably represented everywhere."
Those left behind at the media center will receive constant briefings in a number of languages, and will also be able to watch the reports of the main outlets and footage relayed by the IDF Spokesman's Office itself.
Israeli media outlets will be given preference because "the story is first and foremost an Israeli one," Yaron stresses; but some local outlets, the television channels in particular, have already expressed concern with regard to the "controlled openness" policy.
Channel 10's military affairs commentator, Alon Ben-David, for example, says the plans he has seen are based on "the belief that they can control us and direct us and determine where we will be. This doesn't appear reasonable... I want free mobility in the field. They can keep tabs on who goes in, but they can't dictate to us where we go."
Together with readying the logistics, the IDF Spokesman's Office is also working on formulating the desired messages so as to promote the smooth implementation of the pullout and, presumably, to influence the manner in which the operation is etched in national memory. The main slogan in this regard is "Evacuating and Embracing," with the central message to the evacuees and the public at large being one of empathy and solidarity with the pain of the settlers - a common destiny, with the IDF left out of the political argument.
In this regard, Yaron stresses that the operation is not a military one, but rather "a national task for which the IDF is the operational arm."
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