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\n Media lawyers and newsroom leaders are evaluating a government memo spelling out new rules that would sharply restrict reporting at the Pentagon.\n <\/p>\n
\n Several of the country\u2019s biggest news outlets are publicly pushing back on the rules, foreshadowing a potential legal battle.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis policy operates as a prior restraint on publication, which is considered the most serious of First Amendment violations,\u201d Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n
\n The policy leverages the fact that many reporters who cover the US military have press credentials that allow physical access to the Pentagon complex.\n <\/p>\n
\n Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s press office has already booted some news outlets, including CNN, from media workspaces and made key parts of the building off-limits to journalists without an official escort.\n <\/p>\n
\n Now, according to the new policy, beat reporters with a Pentagon credential will have to sign a pledge not to obtain or use unauthorized material \u2014 even though, as Stern said, \u201cThe Supreme Court has made clear for decades that journalists are entitled to lawfully obtain and publish government secrets. That is essentially the job description of an investigative journalist.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n But the new policy will turn that act into a cause for revoking press credentials.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAsking independent journalists to submit to these kinds of restrictions is at stark odds with the constitutional protections of a free press in a democracy,\u201d a spokesperson for The New York Times said in response.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Times called the policy \u201cyet another step in a concerning pattern of reducing access to what the U.S. military is undertaking at taxpayer expense.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal also issued statements criticizing the policy. And Thomas Evans, the editor-in-chief of NPR, said, \u201cWe\u2019ll be working with other news organizations to push back.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n It is unclear what form that response will take.\n <\/p>\n
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