Media says she won’t sign new Pentagon rules

News organizations including The New York Times, The Associated Press and the conservative Newsmax television network said Monday they would not sign a Defense Department document on its new journalism rules, making it more likely that the Trump administration will expel their reporters from the Pentagon.

Those outlets say the policy threatens to punish them for routine newsgathering protected by the First Amendment. The Washington Post and The Atlantic on Monday also publicly joined the group, which says it will not sign.

Defense Minister Pete Hegseth reaction By posting the Times statement on X and adding a hand waving emoji. Reporters who do not acknowledge the policy in writing by Tuesday must surrender their badges to the Pentagon and vacate their workplaces the next day, his team said.

the New rules Preventing journalists from accessing large swaths of the Pentagon unescorted, they say Hegseth could revoke journalists’ access to journalists who ask anyone at the Defense Department for information — classified or otherwise — that he has not agreed to publish.

“We believe the requirements are unnecessary and burdensome and hope the Pentagon will review the matter further,” said Newsmax, whose on-air journalists generally support President Donald Trump’s administration.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the rules establish “common sense information procedures.”

“The policy is not asking them to agree, just to acknowledge that they understand what our policy is,” Parnell said. “This has caused journalists to have a complete meltdown, with one victim crying online. We stand by our policy because it is what is best for our forces and the national security of this country.”

Hegseth also reposted a question from a follower who asked: “Is it because they can’t walk around the Pentagon freely? Do they think they deserve unrestricted access to a top-secret military facility under the First Amendment?”

“Yes,” Hegseth replied. Journalists say none of these assertions are true.

Pentagon correspondents say that signing the statement means acknowledging that reporting any information that has not been approved by the government harms national security. “This is simply not true,” said David Schultz, director of the Media Freedom and Access to Information Clinic at Yale University.

Journalists said they have long worn badges, do not access classified areas, and do not report information that risks putting any Americans in harm’s way.

“The Pentagon certainly has the right to set its own policies, within the constraints of the law,” the Pentagon Press Association said in a statement Monday. “However, there is no need or justification for requiring reporters to confirm their understanding of ambiguous and potentially unconstitutional policies as a precondition for reporting from Pentagon facilities.”

Noting that taxpayers pay nearly $1 trillion annually to the US military, The Times’ Washington bureau chief, Richard Stevenson, said that “the public has a right to know how the government and the military operate.”

Trump has put pressure on news organizations in several ways ABC News and CBS News Settle lawsuits related to its coverage. Trump also filed lawsuits against him New York Times and Wall Street Journal It moved to stifle funding for government-run services such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.