Senior military officers welcome media scrutiny and want more for future conflicts Lieutenant Colonel Chris Smith speaks with a commander of the Afghan National Army. SENIOR army officers have welcomed "embedded" media access to operations in Afghanistan and want greater scrutiny for future conflicts. A new paper for the Land Warfare Studies Centre by army public affairs officer Lieutenant Colonel Jason Logue, entitled "Herding Cats," finds broad support among senior officers and journalists for more media engagement by the military. There are still major problems to overcome to bring the Australian Defence Force (ADF) into line with the unfettered access provided by US or British forces, but the "embed" program adopted for the past three years was a major improvement compared to previous campaigns. Commander Officer of Mentoring Task Force 3 Lieutenant Colonel Chris Smith urged his colleagues to seek the truth no matter how awkward or uncomfortable it was. ``If the truth is unfavourable then we should not be surprised by the unfavourable response of the public to such reports," he said. Quite simply, if you want the media to report on success, be successful. If you are losing a war, then the media will try to identify why things are going wrong and report on the possibility of losing. If we change the rationale for going to war halfway through, then the media will get confused or question the motive for changing the goals. If your soldiers are poorly disciplined, racist, or misogynistic then this truth will be revealed sooner or later. It's all fairly simple. Work on getting real things right, invite the media in to see it and let them report what they see. Lieutenant Colonel Chris Smith, shields himself from the dust as a Chinook Medium Lift Helicopter takes off. Deputy army chief and former commander of forces in the Middle East Major General Angus Campbell said that in a democracy the military had no choice but to engage with the media. ``We, as an army and defence force, are required to engage with the media, to enable the media and to interact with the media. We learn more through engaging in the process than we do by criticising media reporting after the fact," he said. Major General Campbell said the term "embedding" was obsolete and he suggested a better word was "enabling." ``Put simply, war is sustained through public support which, in turn, is enabled through regular and consistent contact with the media. Lieutenant Colonel Logue said the embed program, particularly its rapid expansion in the past two years, had done much to enhance the often maligned military-media relationship. ``While the risks associated with the program are plentiful, the greater risk lies in not granting access to the media," he said. ``If the ADF is proud of its personnel, the organisation should not be afraid of media reporting of their actions. Network Ten political editor Hugh Riminton, who was embedded with troops, said the ADF deserved credit for revising its early attempts at an embed program. ``We were well accepted by the troops we met and were given every assistance to get the material we needed," he said. ###