Saturday, April 1, 1972
Viets Drop Chargess Against Newsmen
SAIGON (UPI) --The South Vietnamese Information Ministry said Saturday it had decided to drop disaccreditation proceedings against a UPI correspondent who had been accused of violating military ground rules concerning release of information about troop movements.Similar proceedings against the Associated Press also were dropped and it was understood they would be dropped against a third agency, Agence France-Presse, as well.Bureau managers of all three agencies were summoned separately by information minister Truong Buu Dien and cautioned against publishing dispatches revealing military secrets or tending to demoralize public morale.UPI had appealed for reversal of disaccreditation proceedings against Veteran Correspondent Kim Willenson, who had been accused of breaking the ground rule forbidding publication of troop movements.UPI said Willenson's dispatch gave no details of units, locations or departure and arrival times and thus did not violate the ground rules.The information minister said Saturday, "we are dropping the matter because it is the first time this has happened. But it also must be the last time."The minister's action does not affect the U.S. Command's 45-day disaccreditation of UPI Correspondent Alan Dawson for a story appearing under his name in which he also allegedly violated ground rules concerning troops movements while they are going on.UPI is appealing that decision as well, on grounds that the movement had been completed before the dispatch was written."Viets Drop Charges Against Newsmen", by (UPI), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Monday, April 1, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.