{"id":23504,"date":"2026-06-02T09:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T09:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/pentagon-bars-journalists-from-its-press-office-after-designating-it-a-classified-space\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T09:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T09:22:13","slug":"pentagon-bars-journalists-from-its-press-office-after-designating-it-a-classified-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/pentagon-bars-journalists-from-its-press-office-after-designating-it-a-classified-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon bars journalists from its press office after designating it a \u2018classified space\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Pentagon on Monday broke a long-standing practice by barring journalists from its press office after raising the space’s security status.<\/p>\n

Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez said in a statement to MS NOW that the Pentagon Press Office has now been designated as a “Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility” since speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War will be using the facility. <\/p>\n

“These speechwriters routinely handle classified material and require SIPRNet access. As a result, journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space,” Valdez said in the statement.<\/p>\n

SIPRNet, or the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network<\/a>is a highly secure, classified version of the internet used by the Defense and State Departments.<\/p>\n

Valdez said journalists seeking access to the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs and the press secretary’s office must now schedule an appointment.<\/p>\n

Journalists have historically been allowed to access public areas in the Defense Department to attend briefings and speak with sources, according to The Washington Post<\/a>which was first to report the press office change. <\/p>\n

In March, the Defense Department closed down an area of the Pentagon known as the “Correspondents’ Corridor,” an open workspace reporters were previously allowed to use as they covered the military. The Pentagon also announced that journalists would need to be escorted<\/a> to access press conferences and interviews with Defense Department officials.<\/p>\n

It is not the first time the Defense Department has tried to restrict press access. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host, told news organizations in September that reporters could not cover the department unless they agreed to publish only information<\/a> authorized for release by the administration, including unclassified material.<\/p>\n

The New York Times joined other news outlets in challenging the restriction and a federal judge ultimately struck down the effort<\/a> in April as unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

National Press Club president Mark Schoeff Jr. said in a statement Monday that the newly “classified space” at the Pentagon Press Office “is a remarkable and troubling escalation in the Defense Department’s ongoing effort to restrict independent reporting.”<\/p>\n

“This move does not occur in isolation,” Schoeff continued. “It follows a troubling pattern of escalating restrictions on Pentagon coverage, including efforts to limit journalists to pre-approved information, revoke credentials for routine reporting practices, and physically remove reporters from long-standing workspaces and access without an escort.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jun. 1, 2026, 8:06 PM EDT The Pentagon on Monday broke a long-standing practice by barring journalists from its press office after raising the space’s security status. Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez said in a statement to MS NOW that the Pentagon Press Office has now been designated as a “Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}