(AFP) – The Pentagon has unveiled new restrictions on media covering the US military, requiring them to pledge not to disclose anything not formally authorized for publication and limiting their movements within the Department of War. The new guidelines, laid out in a lengthy memo distributed to reporters on Friday, require them to sign an affidavit promising to comply — or risk losing their media credentials.
The move is the latest by the administration of President Donald Trump to control media coverage of his policies, and after he suggested that negative stories could be “illegal.” The Pentagon “remains committed to transparency to promote accountability and public trust,” the memo says. But it adds: “Information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified” — effectively barring material sourced to unnamed officials. This new restriction would apply to both classified and “controlled unclassified information.”
The memo also details sweeping new restrictions on where Pentagon reporters can actually go without official escorts within the military’s vast headquarters just outside Washington. “The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon — the people do,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X. “The press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility. Wear a badge and follow the rules — or go home.”
The new rules come months after Hegseth faced stark criticism for revealing timings of US air strikes on Yemen’s Huthi rebels in a Signal group chat that inadvertently included a reporter. Hegseth — a former Fox News co-host and Army National Guard veteran — was also reported to have shared those details in a separate Signal group chain that included his wife.
A spokesperson for The New York Times — a frequent target of Trump’s ire — called the new rules “yet another step in a concerning pattern of reducing access to what the US military is undertaking at taxpayer expense.” National Press Club President Mike Balsamo hit out at the new rules, and called on the Pentagon to quickly rescind them.
“If the news about our military must first be approved by the government, then the public is no longer getting independent reporting,” Balsamo said in a statement. “It is getting only what officials want them to see. That should alarm every American.”
© 2024 AFP
