Brigadier to soldier on for journalists

ALISON Creagh has served in military operations in areas as hot as Afghanistan, Iraq, Cambodia and East Timor.

Now she faces a battle of another kind -- as the interface between a media hungry for information and an Australian Defence Force that is often reluctant to part with it.

The ADF's new head of "Media-Ops", Brigadier Creagh says her role is to get as much information as possible out into the public arena without placing lives or military operations at risk.

The first female serving officer to do the job, Brigadier Creagh agreed that sometimes defence did not give journalists timely responses to questions.

"But I think that what you may see as a reluctance from us is often not a reluctance at all," she said.

"It's more that we have limitations on how we're able to respond in terms of timeliness, and particularly with sensitive matters and significant issues we want to try to give you the right information."

That sometimes took time, Brigadier Creagh said. "Often it won't meet the requirements of the media in terms of deadlines. That's a real challenge for us and we know that is an issue."

Brigadier Creagh's comments came as parliamentary secretary on defence issues Mike Kelly said yesterday that Defence Minister John Faulkner "wants to create a more open culture, a more transparent administration".

But Dr Kelly indicated that tight controls on much of the information about the ADF in Afghanistan would be hard to shift.

Greater transparency remained a clear goal, Dr Kelly told the Ten Network, but it was complicated by the fact that many Australian operations in Afghanistan involved special forces.

"You can't threaten the potential success of operations, or put your personnel at risk," he said.

"It is always better to err on the side of safety and security of your personnel in this sort of environment, and I think the Australian people understand that."

Brigadier Creagh said she had all the access she needed to senior officers to do her job.

"I think if I raise issues of concern or I ask questions I'll get answers," she said.

Whether those answers could be made public would be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Brigadier Creagh has had very broad experience in the ADF, and has a chestful of medal ribbons reflecting service in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cambodia and East Timor and extensive roles in training and in buying equipment.

"There's nothing like going on a deployment,' she told Media. "It doesn't come without hazards and it's quite nerve-racking at times."