Pete Hegseth restricts journalists’ access inside Pentagon

The Pentagon issued a new set of press restrictions on Sept. 19, 2025, mandating that journalists pledge to obtain approval for releasing information gathered there, even if unclassified, and threatening to revoke credentials for those who do not comply.

A seventeen-page memo, signed by Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, asserted that “information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.”

The new rules, issued under the insignia of the “Department of War,” the newly designated “secondary title” for the Department of Defense, also forbade unescorted access to large areas of the building.

The memo also said that journalists with a Pentagon “facility alternate credential” must sign off on the new rules and added, “Failure to abide by these rules may result in suspension or revocation of your building pass and loss of access.”

In a social media post the day the restrictions were distributed, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote, “The ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon — the people do. The press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility. Wear a badge and follow the rules — or go home.”

Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is a project, called the new policy “a prior restraint on publication which is considered the most serious of First Amendment violations.”

“Agreeing not to look where the government doesn’t want you to look and, by extension, not to print what it doesn’t want you to print, is propaganda, not journalism,” Stern told The Intercept. He noted that the government cannot legally condition reporting access on unconstitutional investigative restrictions.

Other press groups, news media and politicians also lambasted the policy. The National Press Club called it “a direct assault on independent journalism at the very place where independent scrutiny matters most: the U.S. military,” and the Society for Professional Journalists said the new rules were “a dangerous step toward government censorship.”

“Attempts to silence the press under the guise of ‘security’ are part of a disturbing pattern of growing government hostility toward transparency and democratic norms,” the SPJ added.

Hegseth has previously been the source of leaked information from the Pentagon. In March, The Atlantic released excerpts from a Signal conversation to which its editor had been mistakenly added, and in which Hegseth shared detailed information about an ongoing attack in Yemen. He also sent the information to a second group chat that included his wife, brother, attorney and aides.

At the same time, Hegseth has joined Trump and other members of the administration in taking steps to intimidate leakers and news outlets that have produced critical coverage. In January, the Pentagon announced a new media “rotation” policy that removed major news outlets from their dedicated office space in the building and replaced them with primarily conservative outlets.

In May, Hegseth issued a memo mandating that journalists have official approval and escorts from the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs to enter building areas once freely accessible to credentialed reporters.