Pentagon press office is now a classified area and off-limits to reporters

Journalists are no longer allowed in the Pentagon press office.

The office where journalists have long been able to seek information from military officials has been deemed a classified space and off-limits to the press to make room for speechwriters who handle sensitive material, the Defense Department said Monday.

“As a result, journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space,” Joel Valdez, the acting press secretary, said in a statement. “There’s nothing controversial about that.”

Valdez pushed back at suggestions that the change reflected the latest attempt by the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to limit media access to the military’s headquarters.

“This is the most transparent War Department in history,” he said in a social media post. “No amount of spin from the Fake News media will change that.”

The new designation, first reported by The Washington Post, comes after new restrictions on media access prompted protests from news organizations, including a pending legal challenge by The New York Times.

The press room, a large open space where DOD public affairs officers have worked for decades, has been open to reporters to ask questions, conduct interviews and meet with defense officials for previously scheduled meetings, has never been a space where classified information was discussed.

Hegseth has sought to inhibit reporters’ access to the Pentagon since he was sworn in last year. A series of increasingly restrictive press guidelines ultimately led to journalists from dozens of media organizations, including POLITICO, to give up their Pentagon press credentials in October. The department offered credentials to a new group of mostly right-wing outlets in their place.

A federal judge has rejected the Pentagon’s press guidelines on two separate occasions, arguing they violated the First Amendment. The Trump administration is appealing that decision.

The New York Times is suing the Trump administration, arguing that the Pentagon’s latest press policy in response to the judge’s ruling still interferes with reporters’ ability to cover the department.

المصدر: Politico