Furore over Media restriction in Pentagon but US administration says nothing controversial about it

By The Slate Bureau

New Delhi, Jun 2: The decision to redesignate Pentagon Press Office as a classified space is being seen by the media as a move to make information inaccessible to journalists while the acting Press Secretary Joel Valdez claimed that it was “the most transparent War Department in history”

Reacting to a report in The Washington Post on Pentagon banning journalists from press office, Valdez posted on X that Pentagon was the most transparent War Department and that “no amount of spin from the Fake News media will change that”.

Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons

“The Pentagon Press Office has been redesignated as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility due to speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War sharing the facility,” he confirmed.

However, access to journalists would be there with prior appointment. “Access to the office of the Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs @SeanParnellASW and to the Press Secretary remains available by appointment only,” he wrote.

Valdez said the speechwriters routinely handle classified material and require SIPRNet access. As a result, journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space. There’s nothing controversial about that, he added.

The press, however, sees it as a restriction which is part of the series of actions by the Trump administration against the media.11I