Satellite images getting so good that journalists worry about government control
Maya Dollarhide
Special to The Freedom Forum Online
05.08.00
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NEW YORK — In the not-so-distant past, satellite imagery was restricted to United States government use. Now it's fair game for anyone: News media and individuals may purchase low-cost commercial satellite images. But many fear that, to guard what it views as sensitive information, the government will begin to exercise "shutter control."
Speakers expressed amazement at new satellite-imagery developments as well as fears for the continued availability of the technology at a Newseum/NY panel on May 4, "Eye in the Sky: Satellite Images, Commercial Satellites and the First Amendment," sponsored by the First Amendment Center and the Online News Association.
"High-resolution images from space are now available to editors and reporters or to anyone at a low cost," said moderator Adam Clayton Powell III, a vice president of The Freedom Forum. "Tonight we will look at the ethical situation and see what intelligence agencies have seen for years."
Fritz Hasler, research meteorologist, NASA/Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres, gave the audience a stunning look at what satellite technology can do. His presentation focused on satellite weather movies, including hurricanes and thunderstorms, and new visualizations of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans.
CBS News producer and technologist Dan Dubno called the new satellite capabilities "more eyes in the skies for broadcasters and the public."
"For journalists, that you could use imagery to show places and get a ground truth is very exciting, [and] the science is increasingly becoming something we in the journalism field use on a daily basis for ground truth," Dubno said. He and others used "ground truth" to mean an accurate reading of something on the ground, whether it be bomb damage or earthquake effects. "There is a new era of transparency," said Dubno.
Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, said, "We look at [satellite imaging] as an exciting technique for journalists to tell stories with more authenticity."
"The thing that disturbs us most about the position that the government has are the regulations that govern the licensing of commercial satellites," Cochran said. "Right now the U.S. government can tell a commercial satellite to stop showing a certain area for a certain period of time." Cochran and others expressed concern that the U.S. government might make more laws restricting what images can and cannot be used by news outlets.
But Gil Klinger of the National Reconnaisance Office assured the panelists that "shutter control" by the government against the news media was merely a theoretical concern.
"I don't want to minimize the concerns outside of the government," Klinger said. "[But] our job is to uphold and defend the Constitution. This is a theoretical argument, as there has not been one single case of shutter control."
John Pavlik, director of the Center for New Media at Columbia University, stressed the importance of the question of access and control to satellite images.
"This could turn out to be one of the most important First Amendment battlegrounds as we move into the 21st century," he said. "I think there will be a struggle between this issue of government concern about [satellite images] falling into the wrong hands and protecting national security, and journalists, [who are] relying on access to satellite imagery to give us ground truths."
Pavlik stressed the need to educate journalists on this new technology. "I think the wrong approach is to institute more laws to restrict press use of satellite images," he said. "I think relying on responsible press is the right approach."
Pavlik said journalism education also should begin taking satellite imagery seriously as another tool students need to learn to use to tell stories. "Understanding how to use satellite imagery is important," he said. "Journalists using this technology need to have a deep grounding in the complexity of this technology, so that they can use it effectively, appropriately and responsibly."
Pavlik advocated the need for putting all of this new satellite information into an ethical context, since there will be new challenges that will come into play regarding national security.
"How do you observe the Earth from space, and how do you make sense of these images across time?" Pavlik asked. "Telling stories using satellite images requires new ways of presenting information. We are just beginning to explore how to use these images, and in education we can go much further in developing the story-telling techniques."
"The public is relying on the reports and information from the data by journalists. We need to teach our students to avoid misinterpreting the images," Pavlik added.
Dubno said it was frightening that the government was talking about restricting commercial satellite imagery even further. "Now that this imagery is available, we're hearing the reaction from the military sector, [and] it's kind of frightening," he said.
Cochran said RTNDA was working to bring all areas of the press together to insure that press freedoms will not be violated by government regulations. "I have tried to engage newspaper editors and others on that side of the line in our concerns of how the rules are written," she said. "They have been very receptive."
Hasler agreed that it was important for satellite imagery to be used to convey honest and accurate stories about the world. "In telling the story of the Earth, the more data we see the better," he said.
