- Reporters to obtain approval before releasing information.
- The new guidelines restrict the movement of the reporters within the pentagon.
- Reporters need to sign a sworn statement promising to comply.
Washington: The Pentagon has presented new restrictions to the media that cover the United States Army, which requires them to commit not to reveal anything not formally authorized for publication and limit their movements within the War Department.
The new guidelines, established in a long memory distributed to journalists on Friday, require that you sign a affidavit that promises to comply, or risk losing their media credentials.
The measure is the last one by the administration of President Donald Trump to control the coverage of the media of his policies, and after suggesting that negative stories could be “illegal.”
The Pentagon “remains committed to transparency to promote public responsibility and trust,” says the memorandum.
But he adds: “Information must be approved for public release by an appropriate author[s]Official Ing before being released, even if it is not classified ”, except for the material of origin to unidentified officials.
This new restriction would apply both to the “non -classified controlled information.”
The memorandum also details new restrictions on where Pentagon reporters can really pass without official companions within the vast headquarters of the army on the outskirts of Washington.
“The ‘Press’ does not direct the Pentagon, people do it,” wrote Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in X.
“The press is no longer allowed to wander through the halls of a safe installation. Use a badge and follow the rules, or go home.”
The new rules arrive months after Hegseth faced strong criticism for revealing times of US air attacks on Yemen’s hutis in a group of signals that inadvertently included a reporter.
It was also reported that Hegseth, a former Fox News coanfrerion and veteran of the Army National Guard, shared those details in a separate signal group chain that included his wife.
A New York Times spokesman, a frequent target of Trump’s anger, called the new rules “another step in a worrying pattern of reducing access to what the US army is undertaking at the expense of taxpayers.”
The president of National Press Club, Mike Balsamo, attacked the new rules and asked the Pentagon to terminate them quickly.
“If the news about our military must first be approved by the Government, then the public no longer receives independent reports,” Balsamo said in a statement.
“Just getting what officials want them to see. That should alarm all Americans.”
