The U.S. Defense Department is implementing new restrictions on journalists covering the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the changes in a memo Friday. The new policies vastly limit access for credentialed media while inside the Pentagon complex in Arlington, Va. The restrictions ban reporters and other media from many areas of the Pentagon unless they're accompanied by an approved government escort. The restricted areas include the offices of Hegseth, his top aides, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Members of the press covering the U.S. military have historically had access to these newly restricted areas through past Republican and Democratic presidential administrations.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is further restricting media access to areas of the Pentagon, as he seeks to cut down on unsanctioned leaks of military information. "Updated security measures for resident and visiting press are needed to reduce the opportunities for in-person inadvertent and unauthorized disclosures," Hegseth said in a memo issued earlier this week. Reporters will now be required to have an official escort with them in more areas of the Pentagon, including the hallway where Hegseth's office is located. "They [media] are required to be formally escorted to and from those respective offices," the memo reads. Journalists in the Pentagon will also be required to sign a pledge to protect "sensitive information."
In an effort to crack down on media leaks, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a new series of restrictions on Friday that ban reporters from large areas of the Pentagon without an escort. Journalists are now permitted to be unaccompanied only in the Pentagon's main entrances and food court. Hegseth's physical office spaces and the Joint Chiefs physical office spaces will now be off-limits "without an official approval from the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and an escort from the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs." "While the Department remains committed to transparency, the Department is equally obligated to protect [classified national intelligence information] and sensitive information — the unauthorized disclosure of which could put the lives of U.S. Service members in danger," Hegseth wrote.
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