Appendix D to Part 246 - Editorial Operations
32:2.1.1.1.43.0.1.8.19 : Appendix D
Appendix D to Part 246 - Editorial Operations
A. General. 1. The Stars and Stripes shall serve the
interests of their overseas DoD readership, as commercial daily
newspapers serve their readers throughout the United States.
However, as a Government organization, the Stars and Stripes news
staff may not take an independent editorial position. The Stars and
Stripes editorial practices and policies shall be in accordance
with the highest standards of American journalism.
2. The Stars and Stripes editor, with the concurrence of the
S&S commander/publisher, and the Unified Command
Commander-in-Chief (CINC), as the owner of the newspaper, may
establish a standard code of personal and professional ethics and
general editorial principles similar to those developed at major
metropolitan newspapers or by professional journalists in
organizations such as the Society of Professional Journalists.
Those codes usually stress the following:
a. Responsibility of the newspaper to fully inform its
readership.
b. Freedom of the press.
c. Commitment to personal and professional ethics.
d. Emphasis on content accuracy, objectivity, and fair
representation of all sides of an issue.
When developed, copies of the code and style guides shall be
provided to the Unified Command CINC and the Director of the
American Forces Information Service (AFIS).
3. The Stars and Stripes editor shall be responsible for
developing editorial procedures and, if required, a style guide
that mirrors daily U.S. commercial newspapers.
4. The editorial content of the Stars and Stripes shall be
governed by the general principles applicable to quality commercial
press as follows:
a. Presentation of News. A major purpose of the Stars and
Stripes is to provide news and information from varied sources.
This aids DoD members and their families stationed overseas to
exercise their democratic citizenship responsibilities.
b. Commercially-Contracted News, Features, and Opinion
Columns. The Stars and Stripes purchase (or contract for) and
carry news stories, features, syndicated columns, comic strips, and
editorial cartoons from commercial services or sources.
Wire-service news, information, and feature material may be edited
in accordance with source contracts and for space requirements. The
Stars and Stripes reflect the news of the day being carried in
comparable U.S. commercial daily newspapers. They should reflect
different sides of issues over a reasonable amount of time.
c. Staff-Generated Copy. In keeping with the standards
established for major daily commercial newspapers in the United
States, staff-generated news and features in the Stars and Stripes
shall be accurate, factual, impartial, and objective. News stories
and feature material shall distinguish between fact and opinion.
Every effort should be made to attribute quotations and facts to
identified sources. In the case of controversial or sensitive
stories, the Stars and Stripes editor, or his or her designee,
shall ascertain the identity of confidential sources, as required
by normal journalistic practices that ensure that sources are
credible. The Stars and Stripes may use the normal range of
journalistic techniques including “people-on-the-street” interviews
if that technique does not constitute a political poll.
d. Political Campaign News. (1) The Stars and Stripes
shall publish coverage of the U.S. political campaigns from
commercial news sources. Presentation of such political campaign
news shall be made on an impartial, unbiased, and nonpartisan basis
reflecting DoD policies of non-endorsement of any specific
candidate for an elected office. Every effort should be made to
ensure that the Stars and Stripes reflect the full spectrum of
campaign news being published in the United States on national
candidates and issues.
(2) The Stars and Stripes shall support the Federal Voting
Assistance Program by carrying factual information about
registration and voting laws.
e. The Stars and Stripes shall provide balance in commercial
syndicated columns. Since the Stars and Stripes may not take an
independent editorial position, a balanced selection of syndicated
opinion columns shall be published over a reasonable time period.
The presentation of syndicated editorial cartoons should reflect
the full spectrum of topical editorial cartoons being published
throughout the United States. The S&S commander/publisher shall
provide the Unified Commands annual assurance that the required
balance for syndicated opinion columns has been met.
B. Administrative. 1. The Stars and Stripes shall comply
with DoD Instruction 1100.13 1 on polls, surveys, and straw votes.
The Stars and Stripes may not conduct a poll, a survey, exit polls,
or a straw vote on any political campaign. The Stars and Stripes
may publish polls, surveys, and/or straw votes furnished to the
newspaper through its contracted wire services. The Stars and
Stripes may not conduct lottery games.
1 Copies may be obtained, at cost, from the National Technical
Information Service, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA
22161.
2. The Stars and Stripes shall have the following disclaimer
placed in the masthead or at the extreme bottom of one of the
prominent pages, segregated from copy in a box:
This newspaper is authorized for publication by the Department
of Defense for members of the Military Services overseas. However,
the contents of the Stars and Stripes are unofficial, and are not
to be considered as the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S.
Government, including the Department of Defense or the (name of the
appropriate Unified Command). As a DoD newspaper, the Stars and
Stripes may be distributed through official channels and use
appropriated funds for distribution to remote and isolated
locations where overseas DoD personnel are located.
The appearance of advertising in this publication, including
inserts or supplements, does not constitute endorsement by the
Department of Defense or the Stars and Stripes of the products or
services advertised.
Products or services advertised in this publication shall be
made available for purchase, use, or patronage without regard to
race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status,
physical handicap, political affiliation or any other nonmerit
factor of the purchaser, user, or patron.
C. Editorial. 1. The Stars and Stripes news staffs are
authorized to gather and report news, good and bad, on the
Department of Defense and its subordinate commands. All reporting
necessarily requires some investigation and, as with journalists on
commercial newspapers, the Stars and Stripes news staff members
have the right and need to ask questions and expect response to
fulfill the S&S mission. However, the Stars and Stripes is not
an authorized investigative agency, such as military law
enforcement agencies, investigative bodies, or an Inspector
General, and shall not function in that capacity. As DoD employees,
the Stars and Stripes news staff members must adhere to the DoD
personnel policies that may not usually apply to journalists
employed by commercial newspapers and must comply with 32 CFR part
40 and, as applicable, the Manual for Courts Martial, 1984. 2
2 See footnote 1 to B.1. of this appendix.
a. Since most journalistic reporting is investigative by nature,
“investigative reporting,” as such, is not banned. The Stars and
Stripes reporters have the same need to ask questions of sources,
and expect responses, as do commercial newspaper journalists. While
the Stars and Stripes staff cannot conduct independent
investigations that fall under the jurisdiction of various military
law enforcement or designated investigative agencies, the Stars and
Stripes may report on open or completed investigations by agencies
authorized to perform investigative functions. If the Stars and
Stripes employees note unlawful or criminal actions in their
performance of duty, they must report such incidents immediately to
the S&S commander/publisher or to their immediate supervisor,
in accordance with 32 CFR part 40, who shall also comply with 32
CFR part 40 and, as applicable, DoD Directive 7050.1 3 and DoD
Instruction 5240.4. 4 If there is an authorized investigation, a
Stars and Stripes reporter or editor cannot protect a source as
confidential when the information may be required to complete the
investigation. Coverage of an investigation, from a news
perspective, should be based on case progress or the resolution
provided by the investigative agency if considered newsworthy by
the Stars and Stripes. The Stars and Stripes editorial procedures
shall not prohibit publishing news of independent investigations
furnished by commercial media and, therefore, in the public
domain.
3 See footnote 1 to B.1. of this appendix.
4 See footnote 1 to B.1. of this appendix.
b. The Stars and Stripes staff may not knowingly place
classified information in Stars and Stripes staff-generated
material. That does not apply to public domain information
attributed to commercially contracted news, features, or opinion
columns.
2. The Stars and Stripes editorial staffs shall receive the same
treatment as commercial media.
a. The Stars and Stripes reporters shall have the same right to
ask questions, to gain help, to have access, and to attend
gatherings available to reporters from the commercial media.
Commanders or public affairs staffs may not use the U.S. Government
status of Stars and Stripes reporters to block the release of, or
access to, otherwise releasable news, information, or events. Under
the same circumstances, the Stars and Stripes reporters may not use
their U.S. Government status or credentials to gain special
treatment, access to restricted areas or gatherings, or other
advantages that are not given equally to civilian media.
b. In keeping with the “Principles of Information” in 32 CFR
part 375 governing release of information to commercial media, the
DoD Components are expected to make available timely and accurate
information so that the Stars and Stripes news staffs and readers
may assess and understand the facts about their military
organizations, the national defense, and defense strategy.
Consistent with statutory requirements, information shall be made
fully and readily available under the principles for the release of
information to the media issued by the Secretary of Defense. A
Government organization may not file a request for information
against another Government organization under 32 CFR part 285,
which implements the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the
Department of Defense, but it is the responsibility of all commands
to honor the DoD Principles of Information, particularly regarding
the intent of open access as described in 32 CFR part 285 when
responding to queries from Stars and Stripes reporters.
3. To meet organizational responsibilities, the Stars and
Stripes editor, the S&S commander/publisher, and the Stars and
Stripes staff members they select, should meet frequently with area
commanders and public affairs officers and staffs to confer, as
their counterparts in U.S. commercial daily newspapers do with
local government and community interest representatives.
4. When matters of interest to the Stars and Stripes readership
cut across the Unified Command component command responsibilities,
the Stars and Stripes editor may use “special project reporting
teams” to examine such concerns. Whether the areas of Stars and
Stripes interest are military exercises, fast-breaking news
affecting the entire Unified Command community, or policies that
require a greater-than-individual-reporter effort, the Stars and
Stripes editor, through the S&S commander/publisher, can gain
help by keeping the Unified Command and its component command
public affairs offices informed of the need for theater-wide
assistance. Such aid could help dispel morale-damaging rumors.
5. The Stars and Stripes shall conduct readership surveys at
least once every 3 years in the Unified Commands where the Stars
and Stripes are distributed. Such formal surveys shall be conducted
in accordance with DoD Instruction 1100.13. The S&S may make
shorter market surveys through its bookstore operations to
determine changing readership interests. The Stars and Stripes is
also encouraged to make frequent use of readership focus groups
throughout the Unified Command.
6. The Stars and Stripes may review commercial entertainment
where relevant and where it supports readership interest.
7. All bureau personnel and field reporters shall have Stars and
Stripes newsroom experience before being given independent
assignments. The Stars and Stripes military reporters may wear
military or civilian clothes at the discretion of the S&S
commander/publisher. If authorized by the S&S
commander/publisher, Stars and Stripes military members may be
authorized a clothing allowance in accordance with individual
Service directives.
8. The Stars and Stripes are both authorized to maintain a
Washington, DC, bureau located with other correspondent bureaus in
the OASD (PA) Correspondents' Corridor. A desk will be provided for
each Stars and Stripes. The S&S shall select the most qualified
reporters possible for assignment to the bureau. A joint memorandum
of understanding on personnel support shall be established between
the two newspapers and approved by the Unified Commands, with a
copy provided to the Director of the AFIS.