New York Times sues Pentagon over Trump team’s limits on press reporting | New York Times
The New York Times said on Thursday: suing U.S. defense secretary and defense secretary Pete Hegseth after the Trump administration imposed restrictions on press access privileges and source-based reporting at the Pentagon.
In October, journalists assigned to cover the Pentagon were asked to accept new rules that said they should not request information not approved by Hegseth. The extra restrictions are also designed to limit their movements around the military command headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. As a result, many leading publications returned their credentials in protest.
New York Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said in a statement that the decision “is an attempt by the government to exert control over news it does not like” and that the Times “plans to defend vigorously against violations of these rights.”
A leading US newspaper company has filed a federal lawsuit in US district court in Washington DC, alleging the government is violating journalists’ constitutional rights.
The Pentagon’s policy is “the kind of scheme to restrict speech and the press that the Supreme Court and the D.C. Circuit have deemed violate the First Amendment of the U.S. constitution.” the company said.
The Pentagon had asked reporters to sign a 21-page form that included agreeing not to “request that government employees violate the law by providing classified government information” or encourage employees to share “nonpublic” agency information.
case argues that the new policies violate the protection of free speech and “seek to restrict journalists’ ability to do what journalists have always done – ask questions of government employees and gather information to report stories that move the public beyond official statements.”
“Reporting any information not approved by department officials” could lead to punishment “regardless of whether such news gathering occurs within or outside the Pentagon and whether or not such information is classified,” the lawsuit said.
It also argues that the policy changes are designed to “fundamentally restrict coverage of the Pentagon by independent journalists and news organizations, either by limiting the information they can obtain and publish with impunity or by driving them out of the Pentagon through an unconstitutional policy.”
Most major news organizations have moved to resist the Pentagon’s press policy changes.
Five major broadcast networks in October in question “This policy is unprecedented and threatens fundamental journalistic protections. We will continue to cover the U.S. military, as each of our organizations have done for decades, upholding the principles of a free and independent press.”
But Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the policy “does not ask them to agree, just to acknowledge that they understand what our policy is. This led to a full-blown meltdown from reporters online and victims crying. We stand by our policy because it’s what’s best for our troops and the national security of this country.”
A press conference at the Pentagon earlier this week was populated Right-wing media figures, pundits and others are likely to show greater loyalty to the Trump administration than the mainstream media’s traditional press outlets.
