WASHINGTON: The Defence Department can temporarily require journalists to be escorted inside the Pentagon, a federal appeals court ruled late on Monday, a win for the department in its efforts to limit the media’s access to officials and building space.
The ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia enables the Pentagon to curtail some press access while it continues to fight earlier court decisions that found its rules limiting journalists’ activity inside the building to be unconstitutional.
The Pentagon and the New York Times are fighting in court over what restrictions the Defence Department can place on the journalists who cover it.
The Pentagon has said in-person access is “a privilege extended by the government,” and it needs to balance transparency with security concerns related to the unauthorised disclosure of sensitive information. It also equated forms of newsgathering with illegal solicitation.
The appeals court said the Defence Department had supported its claim that requiring journalists to be escorted in the Pentagon “furthers important national security interests.”Since implementing its current access policy in March, including moving credentialed journalists to a workspace in an annex facility outside the Pentagon, the Defence Department said it has “seen a meaningful reduction in these unauthorised disclosures.”
“The Department’s policy has never been about limiting journalism—it is about safeguarding classified information that protects American lives,” Sean Parnell, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said on X on Monday.
The Pentagon laid out new press access guidelines in October, and most major media organizations declined to sign on to the policy, in turn forfeiting their press passes. They continued to report on the Pentagon from outside the building.
