The Pentagon will remove media offices after a judge reinstates The New York Times’ press credentials

The US Department of Defense decided to remove media offices from the Pentagon after a federal judge sided with the New York Times in a lawsuit challenging restrictions on journalists entering the building, a department official announced on Monday.

Read more: Judge sides with The New York Times in challenging a Pentagon policy limiting reporters’ access

Defense Department spokesman Sean Parnell said an area of ​​the Pentagon known as the “correspondent corridor” that reporters have used for decades to cover the US military would be closed immediately. Journalists will eventually be able to work from an “annex” outside the building, which he said “will be available when it is ready.” He did not provide any details about how long this would take.

The Pentagon Press Association said the announcement “is a clear violation of the letter and spirit of last week’s ruling.”

“At such a critical time, we wonder why the Pentagon would choose to restrict vital press freedoms that help inform all Americans,” the association said.

The new policy is the latest dispute over press access in President Donald Trump’s administration, which has limited legacy media while boosting conservative and pro-Trump outlets.

The Times filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in December, alleging that the agency’s new accreditation policy violated journalists’ constitutional rights to free expression and due process. Dozens of reporters walked out of the building rather than agree to the government’s restrictions on their work.

He watches: Journalists leave the Pentagon rather than agree to new reporting rules

Last week, US District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, D.C., sided with the newspaper. The Pentagon ordered the return of the press credentials of seven Times journalists, and rescinded some of the agency’s restrictions on news reporting.

Friedman said “indisputable evidence” shows the policy is designed to weed out “undesirable journalists” and replace them with those “who are willing and willing to serve” the government, a clear example of unlawful viewpoint discrimination.

Parnell said the Department of Defense disagrees with the ruling and is seeking an appeal. He said security concerns led to restrictions on press access, a claim journalists rejected.

Under the latest Pentagon rules announced Monday, journalists will still have access to the Pentagon for press conferences and interviews arranged through the department’s public affairs team, but they will have to accompany them, Parnell wrote on social media.

The Pentagon’s current press staff consists mostly of conservative media outlets that have approved of the policy. Reporters for media outlets that refused to approve the new rules, including the Associated Press, continued to report on the military.

Meanwhile, the AP is awaiting a decision from a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of Appeals on the separate lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration. The AP claims that Trump’s White House team punished it by limiting its access to presidential events because the outlet did not follow its lead in renaming the Gulf of Mexico.