The United States Department of Defense has officially barred journalists from entering its press office, marking a significant shift in media access under the Trump administration. Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez announced the policy change on Monday, stating that the workspace has been re-designated as a “Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility” (SCIF).
Valdez explained that the re-designation was necessitated by the office's increased use by speechwriters who handle classified government information. “These speechwriters routinely handle classified material and require SIPRNet access,” Valdez said in a statement, referring to the secure computer network used by the Pentagon to share classified intelligence.
Under the new protocols, media access to the office of the Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs and the Press Secretary is now restricted to appointment only. The administration has adopted the title “Assistant to the Secretary of War” to refer to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to the report.
This decision represents the latest in a series of administrative actions aimed at limiting press oversight of the military. In March, the Defense Department prohibited media outlets from maintaining offices within the Pentagon building, a move that followed a judge’s ruling in a lawsuit brought by The New York Times regarding press credentialing rules.
Journalists are also currently subject to a policy requiring an official escort while inside the Pentagon complex. The New York Times is actively challenging this escort policy in a separate lawsuit filed in May.
Media freedom advocates have condemned the move as an effort to curtail independent reporting on the U.S. military. The National Press Club, the primary professional organization for journalists in the U.S., labeled the restrictions a “troubling escalation.”
“Independent reporting on the US military is not optional,” said National Press Club President Mark Schoeff Jr. “When journalists are pushed farther from the institutions they cover, the American people are left with less information, less transparency, and less oversight.”
Some advocacy groups have openly questioned the Pentagon’s stated rationale for the office closure. Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, challenged the department's classification claim in comments to Al Jazeera.
“It’s rare for anything other than disingenuous spin and outright lies to come out of the Pentagon’s press office these days, so it’s hard to imagine what basis they have to call the space classified,” Stern said. “The only thing sensitive or confidential about the information released by Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon is that it’s not true.”
