The main American social media brands are unanimous in their criticism of the US Ministry of Defense, led by Pete Hegseth, after receiving new news from this department “rules” to monitor the news of what is happening at the Pentagon. As a result, dozens of reporters handed in their “passes” access to the building and decided to abandon their posts in protest.
A review of guidelineswhich the Pentagon says is just “common sense”, presupposes, for example, limits to the places where journalists can go without an escort from the Ministry and send “an unprecedented message of intimidation” to anyone within the Ministry who may wish to speak to a reporter without prior authorization from Hegseth or someone on his team, denounces the Pentagon Journalists Association in a statement.
It was also planned to withdraw passes from journalists who wrote about information that the Ministry had not previously made availablewhich would be equivalent to canceling journalistic investigation which, by definition, is the publication of material that is not available to the public, but which normally focuses on problems in the functioning of institutions that influence the lives of citizens.
The Ministry says that the reaction is exaggerated, that reporters can continue to ask any questions they want and that signing the new rules is just a guarantee that everyone has read them, not that they have to comply with them. Sean Parnell, chief spokesman for the Department of Defense, wrote on social media that “journalists are not obliged to consult [os responsáveis do Ministério] before publishing the stories” and that “maintain broad access to public relations offices, the press room and the ability to ask questions”which “will continue to be responded to carefully”.
The only change, he further explains, “is a long-awaited update to the accreditation process, which has not been reviewed in years, if not decades, to align with modern safety standards”.
Journalists see things from another perspective. And also academics who study press freedom law. One of them, David Schulz, director of the Department of Press Freedom and Access to Information at Yale Law School, falou at PBS about the case. The problem, he said, “is that what the Pentagon calls an illegal request for information, we call news gathering”.
Furthermore, “The Pentagon is requiring, for the first time, that reporters state in writing that they understand that national security is harmed by the release of information that the Pentagon has not approved for release, even if that information is not classified. We know this is not true. Even confidential information can often be disclosed without causing harm, and the public interest sometimes compels its disclosure”argued Schul, adding that this new document that journalists would have to sign has written, right in the header, that it can be used by the Pentagon in court and that breaking the rules could not be justified with the First Addendum, which establishes freedom of the press and information request.
A Associated Press describedin an article about the last day of reporters at the Pentagon, the moment when journalists left the building in protest. “As the hour approached, boxes of documents lined up in a Pentagon hallway and reporters moved chairs, a photocopier, books and old photos to the parking lot, remnants of suddenly abandoned workspaces. Shortly after 4 pm, 40 to 50 journalists left together after handing in their badges”reads the agency’s news.
“It’s sad, but I’m also very proud of the press for sticking together”said Nancy Youssef, reporter for the magazine “The Atlantic”who has had a secretary at the Pentagon since 2007. With her she took a map of the Middle East.
Donald Trump supports his minister, and there was no surprise there, since the President of the United States has always maintained a confrontational relationship with the press that does not publish what he considers to be the fair version of events. “I think he considers the press to be very disruptive to world peace. The press is very dishonest”said Trump, speaking to journalists at the White House on Tuesday.
The President himself has already moved multiple processes against social media, has an authorized group of reporters to cover its events, while leaving others out, and has already refused to answer questions from certain stations or newspapers as a sanction or punishment for journalistic coverage, as happened recently with ABCafter one of his journalists asked the vice-president, JD Vance, whether or not the person responsible for the borders had received a bribe, and the government official refused, five times, to answer.