Pete Hegseth's Pentagon designates press office as 'classified space', blocks journalists

WASHINGTON, DC: As part of an ongoing effort to restrict press access, the Pentagon has barred journalists from its press office by reclassifying the workspace as a secure, restricted area.

The Defense Department's public affairs office, where reporters could previously approach military officials directly and ask questions without an escort, has now been designated a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF).

Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez confirmed the move, calling it “necessary” and saying there is nothing “controversial” about it.

Pentagon press room turned into SCIF for scriptwriters

Valdez noted that the Press Office was redesignated as SCIF since speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War will be using the facility.

“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.

SIPRNet, which stands for Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, is a system of computer networks used by the Pentagon and the State Department to share classified information.

“Access to the office of the Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs and to the Press Secretary remains available by appointment only,” Valdez continued.

“This is the most transparent War Department in history. No amount of spin from the Fake News media will change that,” he added.

Pentagon’s crackdown on media access

It is not the first time the Department of Defense has tried to restrict press access. The move follows a March decision by the Defense Department to shut down the Pentagon's 'Correspondents' Corridor,' a long-standing workspace where reporters were once permitted to work while covering military affairs.

The department took another step in its crackdown on media access in October last year when 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 authorized for release by the administration, including unclassified material.

“Yes, you can be in the press area, briefing room, but if you want to move around the building, you’re going to have a badge, it’s going to be cleared, you’re going to be escorted when you do so, and we have expectations that you’re not soliciting classified or sensitive information,” Hegseth told Fox News at the time.

In a show of defiance, several journalists turned in their Pentagon credentials and left the building rather than comply with the new restrictions on their reporting.

The New York Times joined a coalition of news organizations in suing the Department of Defense over the restriction, and a federal judge ultimately ruled in April that the policy was unconstitutional.

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.”