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(168,530 posts) Fri Mar 6, 2026, 08:04 PM 12 hrs ago

Federal judge set to nuke restrictive Pentagon press policy

Source: Courthouse News Service

March 6, 2026

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Trump administration on Friday struggled to defend the Pentagon’s press policy that bars journalists from obtaining any information not explicitly approved for release by Pentagon officials, which pushed nearly 50 journalists from the nation’s largest news outlets, including the New York Times and Fox News, to walk out.

Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman pressed the Justice Department to explain how the policy does not violate the First Amendment, particularly regarding journalists’ ability to gather news and the public’s access to vital information amid the new war in Iran.

Under the Pentagon’s Oct. 6 press policy, journalists could be deemed a “security risk” for disclosing classified or even unclassified information without the Pentagon’s authorization. Dozens of media outlets rejected the rules rather than sign on by the Oct. 17 deadline.

The Bill Clinton appointee said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s policy breaks with decades of Pentagon practice that persisted through military conflicts, terrorist attacks and wars. “In my lifetime, we’ve been through the Vietnam War, where the republic was lied to about a lot, and we’ve been through 9/11, the conflict in Kuwait, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay,” Friedman said. “I understand a lot of things need to be held secure, but openness and transparency allow the public to know what the government is doing, in times of peace but especially in times of war.”

Read more: https://courthousenews.com/federal-judge-set-to-nuke-restrictive-pentagon-press-policy/