Washington, June 2, (dpa/GNA) – The US Defense Department has again tightened up the rules for journalists to enter its press office in the Pentagon. “The Pentagon Press Office has been redesignated as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, due to speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War sharing the facility,” Joel Valdez, the acting press secretary for the department posted on X on Monday.
The Defense Department now refers to itself as the Department of War (DoW), though legally that designation cannot be changed without congressional approval. Valdez said the speechwriters routinely handled classified material and required access to the department’s encrypted computer network.
“As a result, journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space,” he said. Access to staff assisting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would remain available “by appointment only,” he said.
The announcement came amid a legal conflict on the department’s press guidelines. Media representatives have in the past been allowed to enter the Pentagon’s public areas and talk to staffers.
Last autumn, the Pentagon introduced new guidelines that prohibited journalists from publishing any information without express departmental permission, on pain of losing their accreditation. If they failed to comply, they had to surrender their passes and clear out their desks. Almost all major US news outlets refused to sign the 21-page list of rules.
The New York Times last month sued the Defense Department in a Washington court. Federal Judge Paul Friedman ruled the new rules unconstitutional, and the Pentagon reacted with new rules.
GNA