Word: afn
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...AFN correspondent in West Berlin was ordered to get clearance for stories on demonstrations and political rallies, border incidents, escapes or attempted escapes, "activities at the Wall," access to Berlin, and operation of checkpoints. When the same correspondent filed a recent story, he was asked if it contained any independent reporting. Though he said yes, the story was introduced on the air as "compiled from the wires of A.P. and U.P.I...
...more noticeable, then, has been its deterioration over the past few months. Formerly run by civilian professional broadcasters loosely controlled by the Army, AFN has gradually been taken over directly by the military. Its success rests largely with the officer in command, who must have good judgment enough to strike a balance between too much freedom of speech and too little. "There is no censorship per se," says onetime AFN managing editor Maury Cagle, now with ABC radio news. "The policy of AFN is determined by how scared the information officer is." The present one, Navy Captain Walter Ellis...
Draconian Directives. As Public Affairs Chief of the U.S. European Command, Ellis conceives AFN broadcasts to be an obedient arm of U.S. policy. From his office in Stuttgart has come a steady stream of Draconian directives, all in the interests of what he calls "preventive maintenance." In other words, Ellis decides in advance how AFN will play a sensitive story. In reporting the recent 35,000-man U.S. troop cut in West Germany, for example, he instructed AFN not to use "cut" or "withdrawal"; "redeployment" was the proper word. No longer could AFN refer to the National Liberation Front...
Ellis ordered the network not to "engage in independent political or diplomatic reporting." AFN Correspondent Tom Kuelbs, who had built a reputation for sound political reporting from Bonn, was suddenly off the air and wire reports were read instead. Kuelbs was told he could tape his material if he did not interject personal judgments. When he got an interview with German National Democratic Leader Adolf von Thadden, it was rejected because no wire-service reporter had been present. Since then, a few interviews taped by Kuelbs have been used, but with his voice edited...