(New York) The New York Times announced Thursday that it had launched legal action against the Pentagon for having implemented a series of restrictive measures against the press that it considers unconstitutional.
Published on
The US Department of Defense, recently renamed the “War Department” by the Trump administration, has drastically tightened its control over the press.
In a recent document, almost unanimously rejected by the American and international press, including AFP, the department asked accredited journalists to no longer solicit or publish certain information without explicit authorization from it, at the risk of losing their accreditation.
In the text of his legal action, filed before a Washington court, the New York Times argues that the government is violating through these rules the First Amendment to the American Constitution, which guarantees five fundamental freedoms, including that of the press.
The administration “seeks to restrict the ability of journalists to do what they have always done – ask questions of government employees and gather information to report facts that go beyond official statements.”
The document that the Pentagon asked journalists to sign is part of a broader offensive, carried out since Donald Trump’s return to power, restricting their access to the Department of Defense – the country’s largest employer with an annual budget of several hundred billion dollars.
In the preceding months, the ministry evicted eight media outlets from their offices at the Pentagon, including the New York TimesTHE Washington Post and CNN. Press conferences there have been drastically reduced.
The department also restricted the movement of journalists within the site, requiring them to be escorted out of a limited number of areas.
