Major media outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and CNN have said they won’t agree to a new Defense Department policy restricting journalists’ communication with military sources.
Those who don’t sign on to the new policy must forfeit their Pentagon press badges and won’t be issued new ones.
For decades, reporters wearing identification badges had broadly unfettered access to nonclassified areas of the Pentagon, able to walk the hallways of the sprawling building and visit officials’ offices. The agency limited where they could go without escorts earlier this year.
Members of the press have until Tuesday to sign the new policy, which states that military personnel need approval before sharing information with the media, even if it isn’t classified. It says members of the media should be aware that agency “personnel may face adverse consequences for unauthorized disclosures.”
Asking agency personnel to “commit criminal acts” by disclosing unauthorized information isn’t protected under the First Amendment, the policy says.
The policy drew rebukes from press-rights organizations, which have highlighted the role journalists have played in revealing wasteful spending, conflicts of interest and misconduct.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a waving-goodbye emoji on X Monday afternoon as he shared statements from the New York Times, the Atlantic and the Washington Post saying they wouldn’t sign the new policy.
On Tuesday, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News said in a joint statement that they wouldn’t sign the new policy, saying it “would restrict journalists’ ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues” and “threatens core journalistic protections.”
Fox News parent Fox Corp. and The Wall Street Journal’s parent share common ownership.
The Trump administration has upended longstanding precedents for press access this year, taking control of the seating arrangement for the White House briefing room from the White House Correspondents’ Association and adding spots for “new media” outlets such as podcasters. The White House also has barred some news organizations, including the Associated Press and the Journal, from attending certain events.
The Defense Department earlier this year also removed dedicated Pentagon office space for some outlets, including the New York Times, NBC News, the Hill and CNN, giving the spots instead to the New York Post, One America News Network, Breitbart News Network, HuffPost News and others, in what they called a new rotation program.
Hegseth, who shared sensitive military information in unsecured group chats on Signal earlier this year, has accused multiple people of leaking classified information during his tenure. Hegseth has taken a combative stance toward the press, saying outlets misrepresented the Trump administration’s work.
The Defense Department issued a memo last month stating that Pentagon reporters would need to sign a document that many media outlets interpreted as requiring agreement not to disclose classified or other sensitive information without prior authorization.
News organizations balked, saying the policy was a violation of the First Amendment and an attempt to limit press coverage.
The guidelines were revised in subsequent weeks, after conversations with the Pentagon Press Association, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and representatives from individual news organizations. But many newsrooms said the changes didn’t go far enough in protecting their ability to report.
The Pentagon Press Association said Monday that the policy “gags Pentagon employees and threatens retaliation against reporters who seek out information that has not been preapproved for release.” It said neither the White House, State Department, nor other agencies require reporters to sign such policies to gain access to their buildings.
The organization, which represents more than 100 journalists from trade publications, newspapers, wire services and TV broadcast outlets, hasn’t made a recommendation to its members on whether or not to sign.
“The policy does not ask for them to agree, just to acknowledge that they understand what our policy is,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Monday. He said media outlets had “decided to move the goal post and refuse to sign the policy.”
He posted on X last week that access to the building “is a privilege, not a right and the Department is not only legally permitted, but morally obligated to impose reasonable regulations on the exercise of that privilege.”
Journalists aren’t required to clear stories with the agency and “retain robust access to our public affairs offices, the briefing room, and the ability to ask questions, which we continue to answer thoroughly,” he wrote.
Publishers and broadcasters that don’t sign the policy will lose regular press access to its headquarters building. They have until 5 p.m. Wednesday to turn in their existing press badges and clear out their workspaces at the building, though there is an opportunity to seek an extension.
New York Times Washington Bureau Chief Richard Stevenson said Friday that the policy “threatens to punish them for ordinary news gathering protected by the First Amendment.” The Journal said it remains “concerned with the Pentagon’s new press rules and requirements, and our reporters will not be signing them in their current form.”
HuffPost, the Associated Press, the Hill, NewsNation and Newsmax have also said they wouldn’t sign the policy.
One America News Network said Monday its staff had signed on, “after thorough review of the revised press policy by our attorney,” with the word “revised” underlined and bolded.
