The New York Times sued the Pentagon on Thursday over press restrictions it said violated the First Amendment.
The Times, along with dozens of news organizations including CNN, Fox News, the Associated Press and the Washington Post, rejected new access rules in October that they said would limit their ability to report, leading to a mass exodus from mainstream media.
“The Times stands with our colleagues across digital, print and broadcast media, including many conservative outlets, in strongly opposing this unprecedented policy,” a Times spokesperson told TheWrap.
“Journalism produced by The Times and other media outlets that have refused to sign this policy provides crucial information to the American public about actions taken by the U.S. military on its behalf and their financial expenditures, and serves members of the military by reporting on issues of health, safety, housing and overseas deployments,” they continued.
Provisions such as when journalists “solicit government employees to break the law by providing confidential government information,” according to a summary of the lawsuit, threaten “lawful and routine information-gathering techniques.” The Times is asking the court to block enforcement of the access rules, which it says are aimed at “the exercise of First Amendment rights.”
The Times spokesperson said that “this policy is an attempt to exert control over reporting the government does not like, in violation of the right of a free press to seek information under its Constitutionally protected First and Fifth Amendment rights” and that the newspaper “intends to vigorously defend itself against the violation of these rights, just as we have long done in administrations opposed to oversight and accountability.”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond for comment.
The Pentagon hosted conservative journalists and influencers for a press briefing this week, just as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is under fire for his role in a Sept. 2 strike on survivors of a U.S. attack on a suspected drug smuggling boat off the coast of Trinidad.
