MoD gags bloggers, blocks YouTube
Updated on 10 August 2007
Soldiers are to be banned from blogging in a bid to stop the public from unearthing sensitive military information.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has introduced new guidelines which will prevent members of the armed forces from using blogs, or posting video footage on the internet.
In recent years military personnel have used blogs and message boards to reveal some of the pressures the armed forces are facing - from lack of equipment to discontent over the motives for war in Iraq.
But such online revelations now seem set to stop, as the new rules will cover "all public speaking, writing or other communications, including via the internet and other sharing technologies, on issues arising from an individual's official business or experience, whether on-duty, off-duty or in spare time."
Members of the British Army Rumour Service - an internet message board used by the armed forces - have greeted the gagging order with disdain.
One said:" Clearly they (government) have realised that the veracity of everything ministers say, and MoD's own media people put out, is doubted, and have decided that rather than cleaning up their own act, they'll try to shift the responsibility."
Another said: "I imagine that anyone planning to give a eulogy at a Service funeral, for example, will now need official permission to speak, and will presumably have to have his words checked and possibly censored by some MoD creature."
The MoD said the guidelines were not new, simply a reworking or existing rules to make them more transparent.
It said the rules only apply to discussions of defence matters - not personal issues.
