The U.S. Defense Department will issue new press credentials while removing media offices from the Pentagon building itself, a department official announced Monday. This move follows a judge’s ruling that sided with The New York Times in a lawsuit concerning limits on reporters’ access.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell stated the agency disagrees with the ruling and intends to appeal. Last week, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, D.C., found the Pentagon’s new policy illegally restricted the press credentials of reporters who chose to leave the building rather than accept the new rules.
Parnell indicated that journalists will now work from an “annex” situated on the Pentagon grounds but outside the main structure. He noted the new facility “will be available when ready,” though he did not specify a timeline for its completion.
Journalists will still be granted access to the Pentagon for press conferences and interviews arranged through the department’s public affairs team, but they will be required to be escorted, Parnell confirmed on X.
The Times sued the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in December, claiming the credentialing policy violates the journalists’ constitutional rights to free speech and due process.
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.
