The Defense Department is embarking on a far-reaching consolidation of its information units. Many entities, ranging from the American Forces Radio and Television Service, the DefenseLink Web site, the various service magazines, the Pentagon Channel -- and Stars and Stripes -- will now fall under a new organization called Defense Media Activity (DMA). (The unit already has been formed but for now lacks a director.)

According to its founding directive, Number 5105.74, one of its missions is to provide a wide array of information products to "the entire DoD family," as well as to "external audiences." Another is to communicate "messages and themes" from senior DoD officials and others in the chain of command in order to improve quality of life, provide security information and sustain readiness. Certain passages refer to the need to properly convey "strategic communications" objectives of the DoD.

These are certainly worthy goals, within the framework of the DoD's need to keep its community informed, and to advise the outside world of its activities. But there was some initial concern in Stripes quarters. The newspaper's goal is also to keep its DoD audience informed, but in a manner of its own choosing. This is the cornerstone of its independence, which was mandated by Congress when it identified Stars and Stripes as a First Amendment publication. Stripes is included in the new unit because the organization of which it has been a member, American Forces Information Services (AFIS), is being absorbed by the DMA.

To their credit, DoD officials quickly amended the DMA directive to state in more than one place the injunction to respect Stripes' editorial independence, consistent with the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The clarification is important, as evidenced by a query from one overseas Army public affairs office that wanted to know if Stripes was now to become more of a "command" publication. 

Those publications and their electronic counterparts are fine; they perform an educational function for base personnel, and convey a commander's views and news. Stripes does that as well, and also reports on other matters, all with a certain detachment and under the direction of its own editors, not military overseers. There is a sharp distinction between these forms of media, though they may coexist to the benefit of all.