The U.S. Army uses a screening system to deny some reporters' access to military units in order to prevent unfavorable news coverage of U.S. war efforts, the Stars and Stripes reported Friday.

Moreover, Army public affairs officers confirmed to the newspaper that they also use the system to decide how to steer reporters away from "potentially negative stories".

"If a reporter has been focused on nothing but negative topics, you're not going to send him into a unit that's not your best," Patrick Seiber, spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division, was quoted as saying.

Seiber said he at least twice rejected reporters' access to U.S. troops based partly on the screening results of these reporters.

The Pentagon's reporter-screening practice has triggered a growing controversy in the United States recently since the Stars and Stripes reported on Monday that the U.S. military hired a private public-relations company to screen the journalists before they go to Afghanistan.

(Xinhua News Agency August 29, 2009)