Pentagon clamps down on having reporters in certain areas of building

The Defense Department is restricting the access of journalists within its walls and requiring them to travel with an escort in certain areas.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the measures are needed “in the interest of national security” and to “reduce the opportunities for in-person inadvertent and unauthorized disclosures.”

“While the Department remains committed to transparency, the Department is equally obligated to protect [classified national intelligence information] and sensitive information — the unauthorized disclosure of which could put the lives of U.S. Service members in danger,” Hegseth wrote in a memo.

Journalists will no longer be allowed near Hegseth’s physical office spaces and the Joint Staff physical office spaces “without an official approval and escort from the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense

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