(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, RSF protested the exclusive rights contract signed by the Pentagon with Space Imaging, which deprives the media of access to pictures of Afghanistan taken by Ikonos, the most efficient civilian satellite. The organisation asked Rumsfeld to reconsider the agreement’s exclusivity clause. “This contract, […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, RSF protested the exclusive rights contract signed by the Pentagon with Space Imaging, which deprives the media of access to pictures of Afghanistan taken by Ikonos, the most efficient civilian satellite. The organisation asked Rumsfeld to reconsider the agreement’s exclusivity clause. “This contract, effective since the first day of US military strikes in Afghanistan, is a form of disguised censorship aimed at preventing the media from fulfilling their monitoring role,” noted RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. “The US authorities behave in the same manner as the Taliban when they deny journalists access to Afghanistan,” stressed Ménard.
According to information gathered by RSF, the Pentagon bought exclusive rights to all pictures taken by the satellite Ikonos of Enduring Freedom, the US military operation in Afghanistan. The contract denies Space Imaging, the company which runs Ikonos, the right to “sell, distribute, share nor provide [the pictures] to any other entity.” The contract is for one month and is renewable. A spokesperson for Space Imaging confirmed that the US government has all the pictures of Afghanistan at its disposal. Despite numerous requests by the media, the firm cannot sell them any pictures.
According to Joan Mears of the Pentagon National Imagery and Mapping Agency, in charge of the contract with Space Imaging, the US authorities’ intention is “to ensure [themselves] access to any imagery” of operation Enduring Freedom. In an article published on 17 October by the British daily “The Guardian”, Duncan Campbell, a specialist on intelligence matters, declared that “the US military does not need the pictures for its own purposes because it already has six imaging satellites in orbit, augmented by a seventh launched last weekend. Four of the satellites, called Keyholes, take photographic images estimated to be six to ten times better than the one metre resolution available from Ikonos.” Campbell confirmed that Ikonos is currently the most efficient civilian satellite.
