Wyden Slams New Pentagon Press Restrictions Forcing Reporters to Obtain Government Approval of Coverage
DOD Media Policy “chills press freedoms, undermines our democracy, and prevents Americans from understanding the actions of the U.S. military”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called on the Department of Defense to rescind its outrageous new restrictions on independent reporters, after every major independent news organization walked out of the Pentagon and refused to sign on to unprecedented government censorship of their reporting.
The new Pentagon press policy requires reporters to pledge not to publish information without the authorization of a department official, a flagrant violation of the First Amendment and independent journalism. The policy also creates new limits on where reporters can go inside the Pentagon building.
“This move chills press freedoms, undermines our democracy, and prevents Americans from understanding the actions of the U.S. military and the use of their taxpayer dollars,” Wyden wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “This crackdown represents an attempt to institutionalize propaganda and obscure the truth.”
The new DOD policy is a clear violation of the First Amendment, which provides broad protections against restraining what the press can publish, based on decades of settled precedents.
“The ability to engage and build relationships with military officials and civilians in the Pentagon enables journalists to deliver accurate information to the American people to aid their understanding of the realities U.S. troops are facing,” Wyden wrote. “The United States’ longstanding commitment to press freedoms has allowed reporters to uncover botched military operations that have led to unnecessary military and civilian deaths and wasteful government projects that administrations of both parties would likely prefer to keep hidden from the public eye.”
Wyden, as the son of a reporter, has long fought to protect First Amendment free speech rights and the ability of reporters to do their jobs without unwarranted interference from the government. Last year, he coauthored the bipartisan PRESS Act, which would protect reporters against unnecessary and warrantless government surveillance.
Read the full letter here.
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