Leading US news outlets reject new Pentagon policy banning journalists building unless they only report information officially approved by the Department of Defense.
Major media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN, have said they will disagree with the new guidelines, citing concerns that they could seriously undermine press freedom.
Reporters who do not sign the policy by 5 pm EST (10 pm BST) on Tuesday must surrender their media credentials and leave Pentagon premises, the department said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded to various news outlets' negative reactions to X with an emoji of a waving hand, offering to say goodbye.
The Trump administration says the changes are necessary to protect national security.
“Access to the Pentagon is a privilege, not a right,” Hegseth said on social media. “The accredited press is no longer permitted to incite criminal acts.”
A notice announcing changes was sent to reporters last month, telling them that “information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorized official before it is published, even if it is not classified.”
The Pentagon Press Association said most of its members “would likely give up their badges rather than acknowledge policies that silence Pentagon employees.”
“The policy sends an unprecedented message of intimidation to everyone in the Department of Defense, warning against any unauthorized interaction with the press and even suggesting that speaking without explicit permission is criminal, which it clearly is not,” the association said.
More than 100 members are authorized to cover the Pentagon, and for decades, reporters with identification badges had unrestricted access to unclassified parts of the building to visit officials.
The Associated Press, Reuters, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal and NPR are among other prominent media organizations represented at the Pentagon that have refused to sign on to the new guidelines.
The major networks – ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News Media and NBC News – said in a joint statement that the rules will prevent journalists from “keeping the country and the world informed on important national security issues.”
Several right-wing news organizations, including the Washington Times and Newsmax, said their reporters also would not sign on to the new policy.
The 21-page document lays out a number of requirements, including that military personnel must obtain approval before sharing information with the media, even if it is not classified.
The policy states that requiring agency employees to “commit criminal acts” by disclosing unauthorized information is not protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech.
Journalists are not technically prohibited from covering or publishing stories about the US military using information considered unclassified.
But they could be considered a “security risk” if they disclose classified or even unclassified information under the new rules without Pentagon approval.
“Our policy is also clear: inciting Department of Defense personnel and civilians to commit crimes is strictly prohibited,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on social media.
“The policy does not require them to agree, but simply to acknowledge that they understand what our policy is,” Parnell said Monday.
Speaking to reporters during a White House meeting on Tuesday, President Donald Trump supported new restrictive Pentagon rules on press access.
“The press is very dishonest,” Trump said, adding that the restrictions were necessary because Hegseth “finds the press very destructive.”
“I think it kind of bothers me when soldiers and even, you know, high-ranking generals walk around with you guys on their sleeves and question them because they could make a mistake, and the mistake could be tragic,” the president said.
At the same meeting, Hegseth called the restrictions “common sense” meant to protect classified information and keep reporters from wandering around the Pentagon.
Press access rules in place at the Pentagon before the new policy already limited access to restricted areas and classified materials.
The new policy is the latest expansion of restrictions on press access to the Pentagon under Hegseth, the former Fox News host who has renamed the Defense Department the Department of War.
In May, officials removed dedicated Pentagon office space for some publications, including the New York Times, NBC News, The Hill and CNN. Instead, the slots were allocated to the New York Post, One America News Network, Breitbart News Network, HuffPost News and others in what is known as a new rotation program.
Hegseth had previously come under scrutiny for his own handling of sensitive information after it was revealed that he shared details about the bombing of Yemen in a group chat with a reporter in March.
