Overview
- Journalists have a one-week deadline to acknowledge the policy or risk losing physical access to the Pentagon complex.
- The latest draft removes any prepublication approval requirement but preserves language allowing credential revocation for reporters deemed security risks for soliciting unauthorized disclosures, including unclassified information.
- The department plans to relocate news organizations from long-held workspaces and enforce stricter badge and escort protocols, changes reporters say will further isolate the press corps.
- Pentagon officials say they negotiated in good faith, argue building access is a privilege subject to reasonable regulation, and stress that reporters are not required to clear stories before publication.
- CNN says it will not sign and will continue coverage without on-site access, while other outlets and media-law groups weigh options and raise First Amendment concerns.