Judge sides with New York Times in challenge to policy limiting reporters’ access to Pentagon

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge We agreed on Friday Blocking the Trump administration from enforcing a policy restricting news reporters’ access to the Pentagon and agreeing with The New York Times that key parts of the new rules are illegal.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, D.C., sided with the paper and ruled that the Pentagon policy illegally restricted journalists’ press credentials. went out Instead of accepting the new rules.

Times He filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed in December that the authentication policy violated journalists’ constitutional rights to free speech and due process.

The current Pentagon press corps consists mostly of conservative outlets that accept this policy. Reporters from media outlets that refused to accept the new rules, including the Associated Press continuous reporting in the military.

Friedman, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Bill Clinton, said the policy “does not fairly address the Pentagon’s routine, lawful journalistic practices that would result in the denial, suspension or revocation of press information.” It ruled that this violated his First and Fifth amendment rights to free speech and due process.

“The framers of the First Amendment believed that the security of the nation requires a free press and an informed people, and that this security is compromised by government suppression of political speech. This principle has protected the nation’s security for nearly 250 years. It must no longer be abandoned,” the judge wrote.

Times lawyer Theodore Boutrous said in a statement that the court decision was “a strong repudiation of the Pentagon’s effort to suppress freedom of the press and the reporting of vital wartime information to the American people.”

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision.

The policy was claimed to impose “common sense” rules that protect the military from disclosure of national security information.

“The purpose of this process is to prevent those who pose a security risk from having broad access to American military headquarters.” government lawyers wrote.

Lawyers for the Times argue that the policy is designed to silence negative press coverage of President Donald Trump’s administration.

“The First Amendment expressly prohibits the government from granting itself unfettered power to restrict speech, because the mere existence of such arbitrary authority can lead to self-censorship.” they wrote.

The judge said he agreed that “national security must be protected, the safety of our soldiers must be protected, and war plans must be protected.”

“But especially given the country’s recent attack on Venezuela and its ongoing war with Iran, it is more important than ever that the public has access to information from a variety of perspectives about what its government is doing, so that the public can support government policies if they want to support them; they can protest if they want to protest them; and they can decide, based on full, complete, and clear information, who to vote for in the next election,” Friedman wrote.

Friedman said “indisputable evidence” showed that the policy was designed to weed out “disliked journalists” and replace them with those “who are in government and willing to serve”; This is a clear example of illegal viewpoint discrimination.

“In sum, the Policy prima facie makes any news gathering and reporting not approved by the Department a potential basis for denial, suspension or revocation of a journalist’s (credentials),” he wrote. “There is no way for journalists to know how to do their job without losing their credentials.”

The Pentagon had asked the judge to postpone his decision for a week to allow for an appeal. Friedman refused.

Judge He instructed the Pentagon Return of press credentials of seven Times journalists. But it said the decision to waive the challenged policy terms applied to “all regulated parties”. Friedman gave the Pentagon a week to submit a written report on compliance with the order.

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Associated Press writer Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.