Several News Outlets Reject Pentagon’s Reporting Restrictions

Business|Several News Outlets Reject Pentagon’s Reporting Restrictions

Several news organizations, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsmax and NPR, have announced that their journalists will not sign a new set of Pentagon restrictions affecting news gathering in the massive military complex.

“We fundamentally oppose the restrictions that the Trump administration is imposing on journalists who are reporting on matters of defense and national security,” Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, said in a statement on Monday announcing that the outlet’s staff would not sign the Pentagon document. “The requirements violate our First Amendment rights, and the rights of Americans who seek to know how taxpayer-funded military resources and personnel are being deployed.”

The 21-page Pentagon document lays out a number of requirements at odds with freedom of press protections, according to lawyers representing news organizations. One is a provision stating that journalists could be deemed a “security risk” based on several considerations, including whether they disclose classified or even unclassified information without the Pentagon’s authorization. Media lawyers worry that the stricture could expose reporters to punishment for engaging in routine reporting.

The document replaces a simpler, one-page form that outlined access limitations for journalists, according to the Pentagon Press Association.

Implementation of the new policy is on a fast track: Journalists have until Tuesday at 5 p.m. to decide whether or not to sign the form. Those who do not must turn in their credentials a day later.

Other news outlets, including the Guardian and CNN, have also said they would reject the policy. The announcements reflect the news media’s wide-ranging frustration with efforts by Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, to curtail the physical movement of reporters in the building and impose fresh limits on their activities.

“CNN’s mission to report fairly and fully on the Department of War, the U.S. military and the Trump administration will continue regardless of physical access to the Pentagon. We will not be deflected from our duty to hold all three fairly and fully to account, and we will continue to report on the actions and decision-making processes of the U.S. government without fear or favor,” CNN said in a statement last week.

In a statement on Friday, Richard Stevenson, the Washington Bureau Chief of The Times said, “Journalists from The New York Times will not sign the Pentagon’s revised press pass policy, which threatens to punish them for ordinary news gathering protected by the First Amendment. Since the policy was first announced, we have expressed concerns that it constrains how journalists can report on the U.S. military, which is funded by nearly $1 trillion in taxpayer dollars annually.”

The press association that lobbies for Pentagon reporters issued a statement on Monday saying, “This Wednesday, most Pentagon Press Association members seem likely to hand over their badges rather than acknowledge a policy that gags Pentagon employees and threatens retaliation against reporters who seek out information that has not been preapproved for release.”

The association urged Pentagon officials to reconsider its policy.

One America News Network, a conservative news channel known for commentary supporting President Trump, has signed the policy, according to the network’s president, Charles Herring.

The backlash over the Pentagon restrictions will have an immediate effect on coverage of the military. More than 100 members of the press association have credentials to cover the building, though only a fraction of that total show up each day to report there. The contingent of journalists working from the Pentagon is almost certain to shrink in the coming weeks.

From the start of his tenure, Mr. Hegseth has adopted an adversarial approach to the Pentagon news corps, first removing several outlets from their slots in a shared work space and later curbing where reporters could roam within the complex.

In a sequence of posts on X on Monday, Mr. Hegseth responded to the announcements from The Times, The Washington Post and The Atlantic with the hand-wave emoji, which suggested he was saying farewell.

The Pentagon didn’t immediately respond to a question about whether it would reconsider the restrictions.