AP Files Legal Request For Bin Laden Photos, Video

 

By Donald R. Winslow
© 2011 News Photographer magazine

NEW YORK, NY (May 7, 2011) – The Associated Press has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all of the photographs and video taken by U.S. military personnel during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan and on the USS Carl Vinson, the ship that conducted his burial at sea.

The request includes the photographs of bin Laden dead, which the White House decided last week to keep secret for fear of inciting revenge and violence and potentially being used in the future as propaganda for terrorists.

According to the Freedom of Information Act the government has up to 20 days to answer the request. If the request is denied it can be examined in court.

Should AP win the FOIA request, it doesn't mean the world will automatically see the photographs.

"We would like to obtain images from the raid because we believe they would have significant news value," AP director of media relations Paul Colford told News Photographer magazine today.

"However, we would decide about publishing all or some on the images based on our own editorial standards, which include such factors as tastefulness and whether they could cause harm or danger to others."

There are legal loopholes the government might try to use to block release of the images. The White House is exempt from the FOIA so if the images are controlled there, the request doesn't apply. And both the CIA and the Department of Defense can use a series of national security exemptions to try to block the release of the images.

In their FOIA request, AP said, "The Obama White House 'pledged to be the most transparent government in U.S. history and to comply much more closely with the Freedom of Information Act than the Bush administration did.'"

 

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