While celebrating the heroic actions of first responders, reporters covering the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas are witnessing the shock of some 40,000 people for whom the base was a refuge from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where many served. read more »

The Department of Defense is ending its controversial work agreement with a private firm that produced background profiles of reporters who sought to embed with U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Stars and Stripes and the Associated Press report. The Rendon Group graded reporters’ past work as “positive,” “negative,” or “neutral,” Stars and Stripes says. read more »

The Pentagon says military commanders in Afghanistan are not rejecting requests from reporters who want to embed with U.S. troops because their prior coverage of the military was negative, the Associated Press reports. read more »

For the first time since the Obama administration reversed an 18-year ban on the media’s coverage of the return of fallen soldiers, the Air Force permitted journalists to cover the arrival of an airman killed in Afghanistan,
ABC News reports.

The arrival at Dover Air Force Base of the remains of Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers, who died April 4, marks the first time that any of the almost 5,000 troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan was open to the media, ABC says. read more »

NPR's John Burnett reports on a Mexican journalist who is seeking asylum in the United States, fearing the Mexican military wants to kill him.

Political asylum is usually reserved for refugees who claim religious or political persecution, or fear of torture, Burnett reports. In a test case, reporter Emilio Gutierrez Soto, has sought asylum. (Hear Burnett's report here.) read more »