A federal judge in Washington will again consider whether the Department of Defense has violated the First Amendment by implementing a policy that requires journalists to have an official escort at all times when reporting from the Pentagon.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman will hear arguments in a second case brought by the New York Times, challenging another one of the Pentagon’s new, restrictive press policies introduced by Secretary Pete Hegseth. The matter before the Court is the escort policy, which prohibits reporters from being anywhere on the Pentagon’s grounds without an official Department of Defense escort.
In a court filing, the New York Times calls the policy “retaliatory” and “unreasonable.” They argue that for decades access to the Pentagon has enabled journalists to serve the interests of the press, public, and Department of Defense, without posing a security risk.
The escort policy has one purpose, says the Times, which is “to restrict coverage of the Department and its leadership by independent journalists and news organizations, like [The New York Times], willing to publish stories that [the Department of Defense and its leadership structure] dislike.”
The Times alleges this policy violates the First Amendment by making reporting from the Pentagon impossible by imposing unnecessary burdens on journalists. Under the escort policy, a journalist who wishes to ask an in-person question to an official must schedule an appointment, obtain an escort, ask the question, and then return to the new reporter workspace which is located in a separate building outside the main Pentagon structure.
These new requirements hinder reporting by “cutting off the routine access and unplanned, spur-of-the moment discussions that have been long critical components of covering the Pentagon effectively, according to the New York Times.
The government contends the policy seeks to protect military secrets and journalists should not receive special treatment. “The First Amendment does not entitle — and has never entitled — all people an unfettered right, on terms they demand, to access sensitive government spaces or to obtain sensitive government information — especially in the context of national security,” the government argues in its brief.
But credentialed journalists do have access to unrestricted parts of many government buildings without escorts.
Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice, and the Department of State all allow journalists to move freely in unrestricted parts of the buildings. And until the escort policy was introduced, the Pentagon did, too.
This crackdown on reporters’ access to the Pentagon is just the latest chapter in a saga that has been ongoing since Hegseth took control of the Department. Last fall, the Pentagon introduced its new press policy, which placed restrictions on reporting unauthorized information, prompting the New York Times to file its initial lawsuit last December. Judge Paul Friedman, the same judge who is overseeing the new challenge, sided with the Times in March, finding the policy was unconstitutional.