Washington, D.C. – Two members of the publisher’s advisory board for Stars and Stripes, the military’s independent news source since the Civil War, are challenging the implementation of a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) memo that unlawfully repealed longstanding regulations governing Stars and Stripes and dismantled the newspaper’s editorial independence — attempting to censor “the soldiers’ paper.”
The complaint, filed in United States District Court for the District of Columbia, comes from Susan “Suki” Dardarian and William “Bill” Church — two Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalists who serve on the Stars and Stripes publisher’s advisory board. Dardarian retired last year as editor and senior vice president at the Minnesota Star Tribune, and was the National Press Foundation’s Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year. Church currently serves as the executive editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican and director of the New Mexican Public Service Journalism Fund. The pair is represented by Democracy Forward in the matter.
“In a matter of a few months, the DoD has stripped Stars and Stripes of its long-standing editorial independence, ignoring its own regulations and the First Amendment. It fired an ombudsman who challenged that effort, and now it seeks to directly control the news coverage of itself. In doing so, it is threatening the very existence of a treasured and respected journalistic resource for this country’s military community. It was clear to us that this action was the only way to protect Stars and Stripes and preserve its mission and values at such a critical time in our nation’s history,” said Suki Dardarian.
“Stars and Stripes has a distinguished history of serving the military community with courage and credibility. I’m honored to be a military dependent who first read Stripes as a 12-year-old. The changes that have been forced upon Stripes are a disservice to a global military audience that has relied on this First Amendment-protected and Congressionally backed institution for generations,” said Bill Church.
Stars and Stripes has a storied history of editorial independence that is now being threatened by the DoD’s censorship attempt. During World War I, John J. Pershing, the commander of U.S. forces in Europe, stated that Stripes would not be subject to interference by military officials, and during World War II, then-General Dwight D. Eisenhower reportedly told military commanders to not interfere with Stripes, emphasizing that “Stars and Stripes is the soldiers’ paper, and we won’t interfere.”
The regulations governing Stars and Stripes ensured editorial independence, establishing that “the DoD policy for the Stars and Stripes is that there shall be a free flow of news and information to its readership without news management or censorship.” Those regulations also created the position of ombudsman, “[a] highly qualified journalist hired from outside [DoD]” to “independently advise” DoD leadership, Stripes leadership, and Congress on matters of interest to Stripes’ readers. Congress has also repeatedly reaffirmed Stripes’ editorial and operational independence.
In January, DoD rescinded the decades-old regulations that protected Stripes’ editorial independence, asserting that notice and an opportunity to comment were “unnecessary” and made significant changes to how Stars and Stripes is permitted to operate. The changes included prohibiting the newspaper from purchasing commercial and syndicated news, feature and opinion content, including comics; extending publication limitations beyond classified information to certain unclassified material and any content deemed to be inconsistent with “good order and discipline of the military”; increasing DoD control over the newspaper’s operations; and stripping the ombudsman of their role as an independent advisor to Congress.
“Unlawfully censoring ‘the soldiers’ paper’ is an insult to the dedicated members of the armed forces and an attack on the freedom of speech – a foundational Constitutional principle for which those brave servicepeople dedicate their lives,” said Paul Wolfson, Senior Legal Advisor at Democracy Forward. “We are honored to support this important fight for the freedom of the press and to ensure Stars and Stripes remains the editorially independent news source it was designed to be.”
The case filed today asks the court to deem the memo and rescission of existing regulations as illegal and to stop the administration from moving forward with the changes. The case is Dardarian et al v. Department of Defense et al and the Democracy Forward legal team working on the matter includes Ally Scher, Paul R.Q. Wolfson, and Elena Goldstein.
Read today’s complaint here.
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Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.
