Media organisations and professionals have denounced the new Pentagon restrictions as unconstitutional, describing it as an attack on the first amendment, which guarantees freedom of the press.
According to Euro News, the Pentagon says it will require journalists credentialed to sign a pledge to refrain from reporting on information that has not been authorised for release, including unclassified information.
A 17-page memo released by the US Department of War, recently renamed by the Trump administration from the Department of Defence, detailed that journalists who do not abide by the policy risk losing their credentials that provide access to the Pentagon.
“Information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified,” the directive states.
Advocates for press freedoms denounced the non-disclosure requirement as an attack on independent journalism. The new Pentagon restrictions arrive as US President Donald Trump steps up threats, lawsuits and pressure as he looks to reshape the landscape of US media.
Mike Balsamo, President of the National Press Club, “If the news about our military must first be approved by the government, then the public is no longer getting independent reporting. It is getting only what officials want them to see.”
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth highlighted the new restrictions in a social media post, stressing that the press “does not run the Pentagon, the people do”. He also announced that media professionals will no longer be permitted to freely roam the halls of the US military headquarters.
