By Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge will hear arguments on Monday on whether the Pentagon has defied a court order protecting journalists’ access, in a closely watched clash over press freedom and executive power.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman scheduled a hearing for 9:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT) in Washington to weigh a request by the New York Times to compel the Pentagon’s compliance with the prior court ruling.
The Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in October said journalists could be deemed security risks and have their press badges revoked if they solicited unauthorized military personnel to disclose classified, and in some cases unclassified, information.
Of the 56 news outlets in the Pentagon Press Association, only one agreed to sign an acknowledgment of the policy, with reporters who did not sign surrendering their press passes to the Pentagon.
On March 20 Friedman ruled that provisions of the Defense Department’s policy pertaining to Pentagon press credentials violated protections for news gathering and due process in the U.S. Constitution.
The judge issued an injunction requiring the immediate reinstatement of media credentials for reporters covering the Pentagon.
The New York Times, the lead plaintiff that sued to challenge Hegseth’s policy, told Friedman last week that the Pentagon had not complied with his order but instead released what it called a new “interim” policy defying the court ruling.
The policy, the Times said, bars reporters with press passes from entering the building without an escort, sets up rules governing when a reporter can offer anonymity to a source and leaves in place other rules that the court order rejected.
In a filing on Friday, the Pentagon denied violating Friedman’s prior order. “The Department was careful to address all of the legal defects that the court perceived in the prior policy,” it said.
The Pentagon Press Association said the Pentagon’s new rules are “a clear violation of the letter and spirit” of Friedman’s ruling. Reuters is a member of the association, which includes the Times, ABC News, Fox News and other outlets.
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Bario and Howard Goller)
