Pentagon to Remove Media Offices       03/24 06:14

   

   (AP) -- The U.S. Defense Department will remove media offices from the 
Pentagon after a federal judge sided with The New York Times in a lawsuit 
challenging limits on reporters' access to the building, a department official 
announced Monday.

   An area of the Pentagon known as "Correspondents' Corridor" that reporters 
have used for decades to cover the U.S. military will close immediately, 
department spokesperson Sean Parnell said. Journalists will eventually be able 
to work from an "annex" outside the building, which he said "will be available 
when ready." He offered no detail about how long that will take.

   The Pentagon Press Association said the announcement "is a clear violation 
of the letter and spirit of last week's ruling."

   "At such a critical time, we ask why the Pentagon is choosing to restrict 
vital press freedoms that help inform all Americans," the association said.

   The new policy is the latest dispute over press access to President Donald 
Trump's administration, which has limited legacy media while boosting 
conservative and pro-Trump outlets.

   The Times sued the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in December, 
claiming the agency's new credentialing policy violated journalists' 
constitutional rights to free speech and due process. Dozens of reporters had 
walked out of the building rather than agree to government-imposed restrictions 
on their work.

   U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, D.C., last week sided with 
the newspaper. He ordered the Pentagon to reinstate the press credentials of 
seven Times journalists and struck down some of the agency's restrictions on 
news reporting.

   Friedman said the "undisputed evidence" shows that the policy is designed to 
weed out "disfavored journalists" and replace them with those who are "on board 
and willing to serve" the government, a clear instance of illegal viewpoint 
discrimination.

   Parnell said the Defense Department disagrees with the ruling and is 
pursuing an appeal. He said security concerns prompted restrictions on press 
access, a claim that journalists have rejected.

   Under the latest Pentagon rules announced Monday, journalists will still 
have access to the Pentagon for press conferences and interviews arranged 
through the department's public affairs team, but they will have to be 
escorted, Parnell wrote on social media.

   The current Pentagon press corps is comprised mostly of conservative outlets 
that agreed to the policy. Reporters from outlets that refused to consent to 
the new rules, including from The Associated Press, have continued reporting on 
the military.

   The AP, meanwhile, is awaiting a decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 
District Court of Appeals on its separate lawsuit against President Donald 
Trump's administration. The AP contends that Trump's White House team punished 
it by reducing its access to presidential events because the outlet hasn't 
followed his lead in renaming the Gulf of Mexico.