The Defense Department on Monday loosened and clarified its new restrictions for press access to the Pentagon, after more than two weeks of negotiations with national news organizations.
Under the rules, journalists requiring credentials to the Pentagon will not need approval from the department before publishing articles with information not officially released. News organizations widely interpreted an earlier draft as requiring that approval, drawing their condemnation.
“Members of the news media are not required to submit their writings” to the department before publication, the new draft says. The draft does, however, outline rules under which journalists could be deemed “security risks” and have their credentials revoked.
News outlets that want access to the Pentagon will have a week to review the policy and decide whether to sign. Failure to sign could leave them without press credentials to enter the Pentagon. By signing the policy, a reporter acknowledges the enclosed policies and procedures, “even if I do not necessarily agree with such policies and procedures.”
The Pentagon Press Association, the group that lobbied for access for news organizations at the Pentagon, did not have an immediate comment on the policy.
The Pentagon’s original draft restrictions added to a list of attacks and reprisals by the Trump administration against the news media. In February, the White House excluded The Associated Press from certain White House events because it had declined to adopt the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. President Trump himself sued The Wall Street Journal in July over its coverage of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and sued The New York Times in September, accusing the organization of disparaging his reputation as a businessman. (The case against The Times was dismissed four days after it was filed, though Mr. Trump can file a new suit against the newspaper.)
Pentagon reporters have had access to the building’s corridors for decades, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has curtailed the privilege in the eight months since taking office. In late January, the department removed four outlets — The Times, NBC News, Politico and National Public Radio — from their Pentagon workspaces, though their journalists can still work in the building.
After the news organizations objected, the Pentagon doubled down, removing workspaces for four additional news organizations. Those measures were part of what the department called a “rotation” plan that involved granting space to other news outlets. Many of the outlets offered space are friendly to the Trump administration, including Breitbart, The Daily Caller, Newsmax, One America News Network and The Washington Examiner.
In May, a memo from Mr. Hegseth barred reporters from important areas, including around the secretary’s office, without an official escort. The measure, the board of the Pentagon Press Association said in a statement at the time, “appears to be a direct attack on the freedom of the press and America’s right to know what its military is doing.”
In a social media post last month, Mr. Hegseth described the changes as a populist transformation for the 84-year-old structure. “The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon — the people do,” he wrote. “The press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility. Wear a badge and follow the rules — or go home.”
Those changes troubled media lawyers. In a Sept. 22 letter to the Pentagon, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press argued that the rules contained ambiguous language about journalists’ obligations, particularly the apparent requirement to seek approval from the government for articles that contained even unclassified information.
Another concern with the initial draft was how the Pentagon would determine whether a journalist constituted a security or safety risk — a classification that could lead to a revocation of credentials. That concern is likely to carry over after the release of the revised draft on Monday.
The new rules say that when journalists receive and publish unsolicited classified information or a basket of less sensitive information from government sources, the First Amendment “generally” protects their activities. The draft says there is no prohibition on “constitutionally protected journalistic activities, such as investigating, reporting or publishing stories.”
However, solicitation or encouragement of government officials to “violate the laws and policies concerning the disclosure of such information” could lead to a determination that the journalist is a security risk. In recent weeks, media lawyers have expressed concerns about just what sort of journalistic activity that provision could end up punishing.
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, argued in a Sept. 24 social post that the “mainstream media” was “misrepresenting” the procedures. He attached a letter indicating that the approval requirement for the release of information applied to government employees, not to journalists, among other clarifications.
“I trust that these clarifications address your concerns and confirm that the in-brief does not infringe upon First Amendment protections,” Mr. Parnell wrote in the letter.
It is unclear how the Pentagon might enforce what it has called “collective business rules” for reporters on the military beat. The negotiations between the department and news organizations have left correspondents reflecting on how they would respond.
Nancy Youssef, a staff writer at The Atlantic and a longtime Pentagon correspondent, said that if she lost her credentials, she would just plow ahead.
“I would stay on the beat,” Ms. Youssef said. “I think this work is important, and I would do everything I can to find a way to keep doing my job.”
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