Pentagon bars journalists from press office in latest crackdown

The Defense Department has barred reporters from entering its press office as part of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s ongoing push to “sharply curtailed access for the media,” according to a Washington Post report on Monday. 

The exclusive report said journalists have been blocked from entering the room — where reporters often met with public affairs officials — in recent weeks, based on four unnamed sources.

“People familiar with the change said it was driven in part by a shift that moved Pentagon speechwriters into the public affairs office,” reporter Scott Nover wrote. “The office will be equipped with SIPRNet, the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, so personnel can use the tool without decamping for a separate secured room.”

Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez told WaPo the move was necessary because the speechwriters “routinely handle classified material.”

“As a result, journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space,” Valdez added. “Access to the office of the Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs and to the Press Secretary remains available by appointment only.”

Nover wrote that the restricted access will make it tougher for reporters to interact with the Pentagon’s spokespeople moving forward.

“The public affairs office used to be an open room where reporters could stop by the desks of military public affairs officials without escorts,” he wrote. “It was a meeting area, and in previous administrations the Pentagon press secretary or other officials would regularly hold off-camera gaggles and take questions from the news media, whose members would gather on couches in the room.” 

Nover added, “But neither Hegseth nor his staff have continued that dynamic.” 

The curtailed access comes after the Pentagon booted several mainstream outlets from their designated workspaces at the start of the second Trump administration; those outlets had their workspaces claimed by right-leaning outlets like Breitbart.

And last year, the Pentagon asked reporters to sign a pledge that forbade them from soliciting tips, photographing, or even sketching what they see inside the building. Several outlets scoffed at the request.