The Pentagon in 2013. Photo by PIxabay
The Society of Professional Journalists is “deeply alarmed by the Department of War’s newly announced restrictions on journalists covering the Pentagon,” SPJ said in a Sept. 20 statement. “These rules restrict coverage to information the Pentagon has pre-approved for public release and punish possession of ‘unauthorized’ material — even when unclassified — a de facto prior-approval system that chills independent reporting,” the statement said. “They also confine reporters to limited areas of a public building and require brightly colored new badges marked ‘PRESS,’ all of which collectively stigmatize reporters and obstruct access to information.”
The new policy “reeks of prior restraint — the most egregious violation of press freedom under the First Amendment — and is a dangerous step toward government censorship,” the statement continued. “Attempts to silence the press under the guise of ‘security’ are part of a disturbing pattern of growing government hostility toward transparency and democratic norms.”
The Society demanded that the War Department immediately rescind the measures, and urged journalists and advocates for press freedom to join SPJ in “unified opposition and resist this latest attempt to muzzle the press and deny the American people the transparency and accountability they deserve. Together, we must defend the essential principle that the press exists to hold government accountable — not the other way around.”
SPJ: Phoenix, Arizona Chapter 