In an effort to crack down on media leaks, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a new series of restrictions on Friday that ban reporters from large areas of the Pentagon without an escort.
Journalists are now permitted to be unaccompanied only in the Pentagon’s main entrances and food court. Hegseth’s physical office spaces and the Joint Chiefs physical office spaces will now be off-limits “without an official approval from the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and an escort from the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs.”
“While the Department remains committed to transparency, the Department is equally obligated to protect [classified national intelligence information] and sensitive information — the unauthorized disclosure of which could put the lives of U.S. Service members in danger,” Hegseth wrote.
The new directive also bans reporters from using the Pentagon’s gym and will order all journalists to sign a form to protect sensitive information and would be issued a new badge that more clearly identifies them as reporters.
The Pentagon Press Association released a statement immediately following Hegseth’s memo saying the new policy is more an attack on free speech than it is about protecting military members.
“There is no way to sugarcoat it. Today’s memo by Secretary Hegseth appears to be a direct attack on the freedom of the press and America’s right to know what its military is doing,” it said in a statement Friday night. “The Pentagon Press Association is extremely concerned by the decision to restrict movement of accredited journalists within the Pentagon through non-secured, unclassified hallways.”
In February, the Pentagon evicted CNN, NBC News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and others from their from their office spaces to make room for other media outlets such as the Washington Examiner, Newsmax, and the Daily Caller.
Hegseth’s latest move comes following a tumultuous month when a group chat of Cabinet members on the Signal messaging app accidentally included Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
A week later, a number of high-level personnel were dismissed amid ongoing leak investigations. Dan Caldwell, senior adviser to the defense secretary, Darin Selnick, Pentagon deputy chief of staff, and Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, were escorted out of the building by security this week after being relieved of their duties last month.
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