Lawsuit filed by New York Times against Pentagon for restrictive media policy

The New York Times filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon on Thursday, challenging the newly implemented media policy. The newspaper argues that the policy is unconstitutional and has requested the court to prevent its enforcement.

Several U.S. and international news outlets, such as AFP, AP, Fox News, and the Times, declined to sign the revised policy in mid-October. As a result, these organizations were stripped of their Pentagon credentials.

According to the lawsuit, the Pentagon's policy "violates the First Amendment by restricting journalists' fundamental right to question government employees and gather information for public reporting, beyond official statements." The lawsuit further states that under the new rules, any journalist who publishes unsanctioned material can have their Pentagon access revoked without clear guidelines for the decision-making process.

The Pentagon's new policy is part of a broader trend of limiting press access to crucial information from the Department of Defense, the U.S. government's largest employer with a budget of hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Earlier this year, the Defense Department required eight media organizations, including the Times, Washington Post, CNN, NBC, and NPR, to vacate their designated office spaces within the Pentagon. The Department claimed that the move was necessary to accommodate more conservative-leaning outlets.

Additionally, journalists now face new restrictions, including mandatory escorts when traveling outside certain designated areas of the Pentagon. The Department has also reduced the number of briefings for the press this year.

Journalists who refused to accept the new policy have been replaced by media figures aligned with the Trump administration. These new journalists were granted access to the Pentagon's press secretary's first on-camera briefing this week, while outlets that lost their credentials were excluded from the event.

Author: Sophia Brooks