Major news outlets reject Pentagon reporting rules

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WASHINGTON – U.S. and international news outlets including The New York Times, AP, AFP and Fox News refused Tuesday to sign on to new restrictive Pentagon media rules, meaning they will be stripped of their authority to access the press.

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The new rules came after the Defense Department restricted media access inside the Pentagon, forced some media outlets to leave offices in the building and sharply reduced the number of briefings for journalists.

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The media policy “silences Pentagon employees” by threatening retaliation against reporters who seek information that has not been pre-cleared for publication, the Pentagon Press Association (PPA) said.

AFP said in a statement on Tuesday that it “cannot sign up to the terms of the Pentagon document, which would require the media to accept a vague new policy that appears to be contrary to US constitutional principles and basic principles of journalism.”

“We will continue to report freely and fairly on the Pentagon and the U.S. military, as we have done for decades,” the agency added.

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ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC issued a joint statement saying they would not sign on to new rules that would “limit the ability of journalists to inform the country and the world about important national security issues.”

Along with Fox, fellow conservative outlets the Washington Times and Newsmax are also reportedly refusing to agree to the new policy, which could result in a total of about 100 press passes being revoked.

The new rules are the latest in a series of steps to limit journalists' access to information from the Pentagon, the nation's largest employer with a budget of hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

Earlier this year, the Defense Department announced that eight media organizations, including the Times, Washington Post, CNN, NBC and NPR, were being forced to vacate their allocated office space at the Pentagon, arguing there was a need to make room for other—mostly conservative—media outlets.

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It also requires journalists to be accompanied by an official escort if they go outside a limited number of Pentagon facilities, another new press restriction.

And it has sharply reduced the number of briefings for reporters, with about a half-dozen held this year, compared with an average of two or more a week under the administration of President Joe Biden, who left office in January.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host and Army National Guard veteran, spoke out against leaks from the Defense Department.

But earlier this year he inadvertently became involved in leaking sensitive information by sharing details of upcoming strikes against Yemen's Houthi rebels in a chat on the messaging app Signal to which the journalist had been mistakenly added.

Hegseth also reportedly used Signal to discuss U.S. strikes in Yemen with his wife and others who would not normally engage in such discussions.

His use of Signal prompted an investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general.

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