Trump government wants to control reporting on the military

President Donald Trump’s US government limits reporting on the military and demands no information to publish without prior approval. Journalists who publish information without permission threatens to withdraw their accreditation, as can be seen from a Memorandum of the Ministry of Defense published on Friday. Withdrawal of the accreditation would deny access to all US military facilities, including the pentagon.

Leading media organizations immediately condemned the step. The Reuters news agency was “deeply concerned”. A free and independent press is essential for American democracy to ensure transparency and accountability, it said in a statement. Any attempt by the government to restrict reporting undermines the protection of the first constitutional additive. Reuters will continue to report “impartial, precisely and independently” about the Pentagon. The “New York Times”, the “Washington Post” and the “Wall Street Journal” also criticized the measure. The National Press Club in Washington spoke of a “direct attack” to independent journalism.

Criticism also came from their own party. Republican MP Don Bacon, a veteran of the Air Force, criticized the restrictions. “A free press makes our country better,” he wrote on the platform X. “That sounds like more bumper.” A spokesman for Pentagon, Sean Parnell, defended the new rules. It is “basic, sensible guidelines for the protection of sensitive information and national security,” he said. President Trump himself evaded on Sunday. When asked whether the Pentagon should determine what the press reported, he replied: “No, I don’t think so. Reporters are unstoppable.”

The step is the youngest in a number of measures by the Trump government with which the pressure on media organizations is increased. It also means an expansion of the restrictions under Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, a former moderator of the broadcaster Fox News. In February, the Ministry had expelled four media organizations from their offices in the Pentagon and started rotation with other publications, including right -wing, publications. In May, Hegseth ordered that journalists had to be escorted by official companions in large parts of the building. In the memorandum, the Ministry is referred to as the “Department of War” (Ministry of War). Trump had ordered a corresponding renaming, but must be decided by the congress.