Journalists protest Web site clampdown
Declan McCullagh Former Senior Writer
Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET. You can e-mail him or follow him on Twitter as declanm. Declan previously was a reporter for Time and the Washington bureau chief for Wired and wrote the Taking Liberties section and Other People's Money column for CBS News' Web site.
A journalist's organization is protesting the U.S. military's decision to restrict what information is available on a Defense Department Web site. Last month, the Pentagon said that "information of questionable value to the general public" will no longer be posted on the Office of Inspector General's Web site.
Tammy Lytle, the president of the National Press Club, responded in a letter this week arguing that because sensitive information can be classified, "there is no need for individual agencies to add their own restrictions, especially when they are so broadly worded as to likely become susceptible to abuse." Last month's move follows a January 2003 directive from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warning that too much unclassified but worrisome material was popping up on military Web sites.