![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/210426HEADLINE-DISPUTEphoto01.jpg\")
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\n\t\t\t\tBrig. Gen. John Gallemore, commander of the 18th Wing, poses outside his headquarters after speaking with reporters about America Fest at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, April 7, 2026. (Ryan M. Breeden\/Stars and Stripes)
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An Okinawa newspaper and two Japanese press unions have accused the U.S. Air Force\u2019s 18th Wing of violating press freedoms after barring reporters from a recent on-base news conference over a disputed headline.<\/p>\n
The wing denied access to two reporters from the Ryukyu Shimpo at an April 7 briefing by Brig. Gen. John Gallemore about the upcoming America Fest open-base event, according to the paper. <\/p>\n
Airmen from the wing\u2019s public affairs office handed the reporters a document in the visitor center parking lot at Gate 1 shortly before the briefing, the paper\u2019s deputy editor in chief, Shoichiro Yonamine, said by phone Thursday.<\/p>\n
The notice cited what the wing described as an inaccurate headline published April 5 about airmen deploying to U.S. Central Command in support of operations in the Middle East. <\/p>\n
\u201cDue to the inaccurate headline from Ryukyu Shimpo on 5 April that states, \u2018Commander explains USAF at KAB deployed to Iran to support military operations,\u2019 Ryukyu Shimpo will not be able to attend the America Fest Press Conference until this headline is corrected,\u201d the document states. <\/p>\n
Yonamine emailed a photo of the document to Stars and Stripes on Thursday. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo make it accurate, it should say, \u2018Commander explains USAF at KAB deployed to CENTCOM to support military operations,\u2019\u201d the document states. <\/p>\n
Yonamine said the paper has not changed the headline and has not received follow-up communication from the wing. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe location of their deployment is unknown, so it\u2019s unclear, and it\u2019s not something that can be fixed without an explanation,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are asking about it, but there is no clear answer.\u201d <\/p>\n
The 18th Wing acknowledged but has not responded to multiple requests for comment since Thursday. <\/p>\n
The Ryukyu Shimpo, with a daily circulation of about 123,000, is one of Okinawa\u2019s largest newspapers. <\/p>\n
Two Japanese press unions on Wednesday sent a protest letter to Gallemore, accusing the wing of violating press freedoms guaranteed under Japan\u2019s constitution and calling for a reversal of the decision and an apology. <\/p>\n
The letter, provided to Stars and Stripes, was signed by Kazuki Furugen of the Okinawa Prefectural Mass Media Workers\u2019 Union Council and Makoto Nishimura of the Japan Mass Media Culture Information Workers\u2019 Union Conference. <\/p>\n
The unions called the decision to bar reporters \u201cextremely unfair.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIf the wing had doubts about the article\u2019s content or headline, they should have simply communicated this to the Ryukyu Shimpo and requested an explanation,\u201d the letter said. <\/p>\n
Ryukyu Shimpo editor in chief Takumi Takimoto also sent a protest letter to Gallemore on April 8, calling the decision unacceptable. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe method of issuing this denial on the spot was abrupt and unacceptable,\u201d he wrote in the letter. \u201cDiscussions about the content of an article and media coverage should be considered separately.\u201d <\/p>\n
A separate Okinawa newspaper, the Okinawa Times, received a request from the wing to correct a similar headline but was not threatened with denial of access, deputy editor in chief Masao Tajima said by phone Thursday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brig. Gen. John Gallemore, commander of the 18th Wing, poses outside his headquarters after speaking with reporters about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[7333,7334,7335,8,162,7337,7332,2071,7336],"class_list":{"0":"post-8375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-okinawa","8":"tag-air-force-18th-wing","9":"tag-iran-headline-dispute-japan","10":"tag-is-central-command","11":"tag-japan","12":"tag-okinawa","13":"tag-ryukyu-shimpo","14":"tag-us-air-force-japan","15":"tag-us-military-okinawa","16":"tag-usaf"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}