Media will be restricted

Media will be restricted to a new Pentagon annex under new policy

The Pentagon announced the policy in response to a court ruling that found the previous restrictions were unconstitutional.

By Jacob Wendler

The Department of Defense responded Monday to a court ruling on press access by saying it would issue credentials to news organizations that objected to Trump administration restrictions on the media — but that journalists will be confined to a Pentagon annex.

In a statement on social media, Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell said journalists would need an official escort to enter the Pentagon and the press area known as the “Correspondents’ Corridor” would be eliminated.

The announcement comes after a federal judge ruled in a lawsuit brought by The New York Times that press restrictions adopted under President Donald Trump were unconstitutional.

The newspaper said it would challenge the new press access policy as well.

“The new policy does not comply with the judge’s order,” Charlie Stadtlander, a Times spokesperson, said in a statement. “It continues to impose unconstitutional restrictions on the press. We will be going back to court.”

The Times brought the lawsuit in December after nearly the entire Pentagon press corps walked out, surrendering their credentials instead of signing onto stringent new guidelines that required them to only publish information approved for public release by DOD officials.

“A new and improved press workspace will be established in an annex facility outside the Pentagon, but still on Pentagon grounds, and will be available when ready,” Parnell said in a statement on X.

Under the revised guidelines, organizations that agreed to the original Pentagon’s press restrictions would also be confined to the external annex.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman acknowledged the Pentagon’s argument that it must protect national security, war plans and the security of American troops.

“But especially in light of the country’s recent incursion into Venezuela and its ongoing war with Iran, it is more important than ever that the public have access to information from a variety of perspectives about what its government is doing,” he wrote.