The latest in a string of press limitations imposed by the Trump administration, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has issued instructions requiring journalists to have official escorts into a large portion of the Pentagon facility.
Credentialed reporters are prohibited from entering the majority of the Department of Defense headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, unless they have official approval and escort. The measures are effective immediately.
“While the Department remains committed to transparency, the Department is equally obligated to protect CSNI [classified intelligence] and sensitive information — the unauthorised disclosure of which could put the lives of US Service members in danger,” Hegseth wrote in a memo.
He referred to operational security and the preservation of classified national intelligence data as “an unwavering imperative for the Department.”
