The Obama administration has made many pledges of transparency and openness, but neither of those fundamental principles were anywhere to be seen when the Pentagon opened its first military trial at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, under President Obama. What we did see were intolerable limitations on journalists covering the trial — or at least trying to cover it.

Four of the most experienced and knowledgeable reporters covering the detention camp were expelled from the naval base there. The military's explanation was laughable: they published the name of a former Army interrogator who was a witness against a Canadian, Omar Khadr, accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan eight years ago, when he was 15 years old.

The interrogator's name had long been in the public realm. He was mentioned in many press accounts and even in a Wikipedia entry on Mr. Khadr. The notion that the four reporters' coverage posed any harm to national security was so absurd that it seemed trumped up.

The reporters were subsequently reinstated. Not only did they receive no apology, but the Defense Department tried to condition the lifting of the ban on a written application pledging to comply with the secrecy rule. And other restrictions stood. Journalists were required always to be in the company of a soldier — even when they went to the bathroom. Military censors routinely deleted photographs from cameras.

Responding to an outcry by news organizations, including The New York Times, and with the Khadr proceeding scheduled to resume next month, the Pentagon has announced a revised set of rules.

Most important, the Pentagon's public affairs division has agreed not to ask reporters to withhold information deemed privileged by the military if the information is already in the public domain. Under the revised policy, reporters will not be deemed in violation of the rules if what they report “was legitimately obtained” in the course of newsgathering outside Guantánamo.

The Pentagon has eased somewhat the rules for photographers and videographers. There will now be a more formal chain of appeal to challenge decisions by military censors. They will also be allowed to have up to two images a day cropped rather than blocked entirely.

These changes are not remotely good enough. They only serve to remind us of the Obama administration's original error, which was to try Mr. Khadr for war crimes allegedly committed when he was a child, based on evidence tainted by torture and abuse.