New York Times Sues Pentagon Over Restrictions on Press Access

(MENAFN) The New York Times filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging sweeping restrictions on press access at the Pentagon imposed by the Trump administration — marking a direct legal confrontation over what the publication calls unconstitutional retaliation against a free press.

The suit, brought by the Times and its reporter Julian Barnes, names the Defense Department, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, spokesperson Sean Parnell, and senior official Timothy Parlatore as defendants. It alleges that the escort mandate imposed on all reporters entering the Pentagon constitutes "blatant retaliation" against the Times "not only for their editorial viewpoint but also for vindicating their constitutional rights in litigation."

The lawsuit pulls no punches in its condemnation of the policy. "The interim policy is patently retaliatory, utterly unreasonable, and manifestly arbitrary and capricious. Defendants adopted it as a means to thwart a district court order and to punish The Times both for its editorial viewpoint and its successful suit vindicating its constitutional rights," the filing states.

The legal action follows a March ruling by Federal Judge Paul Friedman, who found that the Pentagon's earlier press restrictions violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The current escort policy, the Times argues, is the administration's deliberate workaround designed to circumvent that ruling while preserving the same chilling effect on press freedom.

That policy, the suit contends, "breaks sharply" from decades of established norms at the Defense Department, which had historically afforded journalists "unescorted access in unsecured corridors so that they can move from press office to press office and ask questions on short notice as events unfolded."

The lawsuit offers a blunt description of the bureaucratic gauntlet reporters must now navigate. "To ask even one question, Barnes and other reporters must call or email for an appointment, wait for a response, get an escort, ask their question, and return to the library outside the Pentagon—only to repeat the process for the next source. Reporters must either forgo conversations or else spend hours chasing schedulers by phone and shuttling in and out of the building," the filing states.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell swiftly dismissed the lawsuit, characterising it on social media platform X as "nothing more than an attempt to remove the barriers to them getting their hands on classified information."

"They want to roam the halls of the Pentagon freely and without an escort - a privilege that they do not have in any other federal building. The Department's policy is completely lawful and narrowly designed to protect national security information from unlawful criminal disclosure," Parnell added.

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