Journalists and defenders of press freedom are sounding alarms after the Pentagon, under President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, imposed sweeping new restrictions on reporters covering the U.S. military. A 17-page memo obtained by reporters outlines rules requiring journalists to seek pre-approval before publishing stories that include even unclassified information, as well as a pledge not to publish any material without explicit authorization from government officials.
The New York Times reported that the directive “could drastically restrict the flow of information about the U.S. military to the public.” Press freedom advocates immediately condemned the move, framing it as a direct threat to independent journalism at the very core of government power.
“The Pentagon is now demanding that journalists sign a pledge not to obtain or report any information—even if unclassified—unless it has been expressly authorized by the government,” said Mike Balsamo, president of the National Press Club, in a statement. “This is a direct assault on independent journalism at the very place where independent scrutiny matters most: the U.S. military.”
Balsamo emphasized the stakes: “For generations, Pentagon reporters have provided the public with vital information about how wars are fought, how defense dollars are spent, and how decisions are made that put American lives at risk. That work has only been possible because reporters could seek out facts without needing government permission.”
He warned that the public will no longer receive independent coverage if the policy remains in place. “If the news about our military must first be approved by the government, then the public is no longer getting independent reporting. It is getting only what officials want them to see. That should alarm every American.”
Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, told the Times that the policy represents the most serious constitutional violation of press freedom. “This policy operates as a prior restraint on publication, which is considered the most serious of First Amendment violations,” Stern said. “The government cannot prohibit journalists from public information merely by claiming it’s a secret or even a national security threat.”
Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, also linked the Pentagon directive to what she described as a broader pattern. She called the new policy part of “the Trump administration’s broader assault on free speech and press freedom.”
She added that any journalist “who publishes only what the government ‘authorizes’ is doing something other than reporting.”
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch and now a visiting professor at Princeton University, put it bluntly: “In Trump’s Pentagon, journalists who venture beyond reporting official propaganda now risk having their credentials revoked.”
Veteran Pentagon reporters echoed these concerns. Konstantin Toropin, Pentagon correspondent for the Associated Press, described the restrictions as a stark reversal from promises of transparency. “The Pentagon, which has claimed to [have] aspirations of being the most transparent in history, is once again cracking down on basic press access,” Toropin said in a social media post. “Denying access to the Pentagon makes covering our military, our troops, and our actions abroad harder. Full stop.”
He highlighted the dangers of the vague rules surrounding unclassified information. The rule forbidding release of unapproved material, often marked “CUI” for controlled unclassified information, is “an incredibly broad and ill-defined rule that could be easily abused.”
Barbara Starr, who served as CNN’s chief Pentagon correspondent for many years and is now a senior fellow at the University of Southern California, warned that the restrictions reflect an intensifying hostility from senior officials. She told ABC News that the effort “is extremely troubling because it’s being done in an era of unprecedented public hostility from the secretary of defense to the news media.”
Trump, facing questions about the directive as he left the White House for Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, attempted to distance himself from the policy. Asked whether the Pentagon should decide what reporters can report on, he responded: “No, I don’t think so.” He added: “Nothing stops reporters. You know that.”
The Pentagon memo itself, however, leaves little ambiguity about the requirement. It states: “DoW information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.”
Hegseth defended the restrictions in a public post. “The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon – the people do,” he wrote. “The press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility. Wear a badge and follow the rules – or go home.”
The new rules follow months of incremental restrictions. In May, Hegseth announced limits on where journalists could move inside the Pentagon, restricting access to the press pens, food court, and courtyard. Longstanding press offices for major outlets including the New York Times, CNN, Politico, and NPR were removed entirely.
The escalation came after Hegseth drew criticism in March for sharing sensitive information about U.S. strikes in Yemen in a Signal group chat where a journalist was accidentally included. Since taking office, he has maintained what observers describe as a hostile stance toward major media networks.
As Trump faces accusations of abuses of power—including reports of extrajudicial executions tied to operations in the Caribbean Sea—the restrictions on military reporting raise further alarm among legal scholars and watchdog groups. They argue that withholding information about defense policy and operations fundamentally undermines public oversight of decisions of war and peace.
The Freedom of the Press Foundation summed up the danger: “The government cannot prohibit journalists from public information merely by claiming it’s a secret.”
COMMENTS