Confusion remains over embed policy in Afghanistan

Confusion remains after military commanders in eastern Afghanistan issued two recent changes to a policy on whether embedded journalists can photograph mortally wounded soldiers, the Associated Press reported.

The policy was twice revised after the Associated Press published the photograph of a Marine who was killed in action. The first revision, which was released in mid September, prohibited embedded journalists from photographing any service member who was killed in action. A new policy was released last week after media scrutiny — the Reporters Committee, the Washington Post, AP and POLITICO all covered the change — that prohibited only photographs with identifying features.

A Pentagon spokesman told the AP the second revision still didn’t provide the media with enough freedom. As of the close of business Friday, field commanders had not released any further revisions.