The Pentagon says it expects to release soon new rules for reporters covering the new war.
Robert Martin, visiting assistant professor of government at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, says, "Our war on terrorism presents new challenges for our journalistic practices. Certainly our free speech tradition has always struggled to balance individual freedom with the public good, especially during wartime. But terrorism adds a new dimension.
"Even more than other types of conflict, terrorism--and fighting terrorism--requires secrecy; yet, in restricting fundamental freedoms like press liberty, we risk giving terrorists the victory they seek," he added.
Martin is the author of a new book that takes an in-depth look at freedom of the press. The Free and Open Press: The Founding of American Democratic Press, (NYU Press, September 2001) provides a careful, new analysis of press liberty.
Martin teaches political theory, and his interests include American political thought, democratic theory, early modern political thought, philosophy of social science, and constitutional law. His work has appeared in History of Political Thought and Political Research Quarterly. Recently, book reviews written by him appeared in the American Political Science Review and The Review of Politics. Researching early American theories of free speech, Martin was a summer fellow at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Mass., and earlier this year, he was a presenter at the Alexander Hamilton Conference held at Hamilton College.