The US military never forbade reporting on bodies returning home. My local paper regularly covered the returning of bodies and funerals of service members.
The military didn’t give the press inside access to the process of returning bodies, unless they agreed not to photograph.
The fact that the military wasn’t allowing members of the press access to events that members of the general public were forbidden from is not censorship.
Heck, the press actually were allowed special access, but only on the condition they not photograph.
Freedom of the press is not the same as privileged access for the press.
And the policy began in the first gulf war, but the second.
You claimed the press wasn’t allowed to report on military coffins returning home:
> During the 2nd gulf war against Iraq, when the death toll began to rise, the US government forbade the reporting of military personnel coffins returning from the war zone
You then provided an article that said the US had reversed its policy of “not allowing photographs” of military coffins.
Which is a very different thing from not reporting on them.
The rule against photographs only applied military bases, which already have very strict rules about photography.
Your initial claim was that there reporters were forbidden to report on bodies returning home. You made this claim to draw a parallel with Russian censorship.
The Russians arent merely making access to military bases conditional on not taking photographs - they’re engaging in political censorship.
Again, it’s very, very, very common to restrict photography on military bases, even by members of the press.
> The difference is seeing 30 coffins on the way home, compared to one coffin returning to he's home village.
> 1 Coffin = Bad, but it is like it is.
> 30 Coffins on one Flight/Picture...terrible.
Is that what the Russian government is doing?
Restricting photographs on government facilities to prevent bad optics (while allowing reporters to write, say, publish, and broadcast whatever they want)?
Reporters in Russia are free to publish what they want?
Remember, you brought this up to draw a parallel with what the Russian government is doing.
The military didn’t give the press inside access to the process of returning bodies, unless they agreed not to photograph.
The fact that the military wasn’t allowing members of the press access to events that members of the general public were forbidden from is not censorship.
Heck, the press actually were allowed special access, but only on the condition they not photograph.
Freedom of the press is not the same as privileged access for the press.
And the policy began in the first gulf war, but the second.