Kamal Ghorui
The Trump administration’s decision to curtail the activities of reporters at the Pentagon, which led to the departure of most news organisations from the building, was blocked on Friday by a federal judge in Washington.The court ruled in favour of a lawsuit brought by the New York Times, which accused the administration of free speech violations.Last fall, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth demanded that news organisations agree to new limits on their reporting. The Pentagon policy put journalists in danger of being labelled “a security risk” that could’ve led to credentials being pulled if they were found soliciting material that could be considered classified or Controlled Unclassified Information, a ubiquitous label on defence department documents.That standard, Judge Paul Friedman wrote in his opinion, “provides no way for journalists to know how they may do their jobs without losing their credentials. The policy therefore is vague in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a post on X that “We disagree with the decision and are pursuing an immediate appeal.”Bloomberg News, five major television networks as well as the AP, the Times and other news organisations had said they would refuse to sign the policy, and their reporters left on Oct 15. Journalists had been working in the building, across the Potomac River from Washington in Arlington, Virginia, since the years after World War II.The judge said that “in light of the country’s recent incursion into Venezuela and its ongoing war with Iran, it is more important than ever that the public have access to information from a variety of perspectives about what its govt is doing.” (This is a Bloomberg story)
