For decades, the defense trade media has been a trusted source of news and insight about Defense Department programs, budgets, and strategy. Ethical, accurate, and timely reporting makes that possible. The public, industry, and indeed the department itself benefit from granting credentialed defense reporters access to unclassified areas in the Pentagon and from the trust engendered by that access.
The Pentagon has been seeking to impose unprecedented restrictions on journalists’ ability to cover the military for several months. Having restricted where unescorted media may go in the Pentagon—such that even visiting the public affairs offices of the military services now requires an escort—department leaders are asking reporters to sign a document acknowledging a vague new policy that, on its face, appears to contravene the First Amendment. This policy threatens to punish reporters who ask legitimate questions in the course of their daily work and to impose material harm on our news organizations for factual reporting.
Journalists from the undersigned defense trade publications will not sign this new policy. Our newsrooms will continue to cover topics of military, defense, and national security fairly and independently.
Military Times, Defense News, Aviation Week, Breaking Defense, Defense Daily, Defense One, Inside Defense, USNI News.