The Pentagon on Friday said reporters who cover the agency could access the building only if they agreed not to publish certain information, an unprecedented move that requires media outlets to hand the department vast control over what they publish.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, in a Friday evening email, said journalists could continue to enter the Defense Department only if they sign a note saying they will not publish classified information or some less sensitive documents that are not explicitly labeled as government secrets. The rule will take effect over the next two to three weeks.
“[Defense Department] information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified,” read the note for reporters to sign. “Failure to abide by these rules may result in suspension or revocation of your building pass and loss of access.”
Officials indicated the move was needed because any unauthorized disclosure “poses a security risk that could damage the national security of the United States and place [Defense Department] personnel in jeopardy.”
The move follows a pattern of increasingly restricted access under the Trump administration to the country’s largest federal agency. The new rules give the Pentagon wide latitude to label journalists as security threats and revoke press passes for those who obtain or publish information that the agency says is unfit for public release.
They also come in the middle of Defense Department efforts to crack down on troops and civilians accused of mocking Charlie Kirk’s killing on social media — and amid a broader debate about potential limits to free speech.
“The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon — the people do,” Defense secretary Pete Hegseth said in a Friday night post on X. “The press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility. Wear a badge and follow the rules — or go home.”
The Pentagon Press Association, which represents journalists who cover the Defense Department, said members were reviewing the directive.
Reporters have traditionally had access to unclassified spaces in the Pentagon to cover the military’s interactions with the world. This includes the offices of the Defense secretary, joint staff and six armed services.
But the Defense Department in January took away workspacesfrom several media organizations — including POLITICO, the Washington Post and the New York Times — and brought in mostly conservative outlets.
When news organizations protested the move, the Pentagon took away the desks of more organizations, including NBC News and CNN.
Hegseth in May further restricted access after he faced criticism for sharing sensitive details of U.S. military strikes in Yemen on a Signal group to which a journalist was inadvertently added. Those rules limited journalists to the building’s press bullpens, cafeteria and courtyard. They must now receive an escort to go anywhere else.