The Ministry of Defence is again 
clamping down on military personnel who air their grievances on social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace and who publish unauthorised video footage on video-sharing sites like YouTube and LiveLeak. The MoD is threatening court martial and dismissal from the Armed Forces for those who break the rules regarding the use of the Internet.
clamping down on military personnel who air their grievances on social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace and who publish unauthorised video footage on video-sharing sites like YouTube and LiveLeak. The MoD is threatening court martial and dismissal from the Armed Forces for those who break the rules regarding the use of the Internet.These measures are being taken because media exposure of equipment shortages, poor accommodation and shody treatment has been fuelled by accounts published on the Internet by serving soldiers. The MoD clearly wants to put its own spin on these stories to ensure consistency with their overall communication objectives and does not look kindly on uncontrolled details being leaked from inside.
"Our approach to social media should be in line with our existing approach to news media and contact with the public. Our engagement strategy will be governed from the centre under the aegis of the overarching Defence Communication Strategy, and delivered through the DGMC-led work on communications transformation".
"The publishing by serving military and MoD civilian personnel of unauthorised content on unofficial channels will continue to be governed by existing rules on conduct ...........In essence these require that personnel seek authorisation before publishing anything that relates to or draws upon their work."
The MoD is fooling itself if it believes it can control the flow of information onto the Internet. The only way it can hope to curtail embarrassing revelations is for the MoD to deal with the grievances themselves.
"The publishing by serving military and MoD civilian personnel of unauthorised content on unofficial channels will continue to be governed by existing rules on conduct ...........In essence these require that personnel seek authorisation before publishing anything that relates to or draws upon their work."
The MoD is fooling itself if it believes it can control the flow of information onto the Internet. The only way it can hope to curtail embarrassing revelations is for the MoD to deal with the grievances themselves.
The Independent also reports that the MoD's PR team is attempting to divert the public's attention away from the negatives by focusing on the campaigns to win hearts and minds in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What we really want, however, is real information on what the troops are doing. We want regular and frequent updates covering everything from coherent strategic analysis to "day-in-the-life" accounts of life on the frontline. It seems amazing that, despite all the channels of communication that are available today, the general public gets so little real information from the MoD.
Link> MoD: Defence Online Engagement StrategyLink> MoD: Reports into the use of social networking sites
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