The Military Reporters & Editors board strongly condemns the Pentagon’s decision to designate its public affairs office as a classified space and bar journalists from accessing it.
The decision is particularly troubling because it strikes at the very purpose of public affairs. Public affairs offices exist to facilitate communication between military leaders, the news media and the American people. A public affairs office that journalists cannot access is a contradiction in terms.
The Pentagon has repeatedly stated that these measures are intended to protect security. Journalists covering the military have long operated under security rules and have never had access to classified information simply because they work in or around public affairs spaces. The public affairs office is not where secrets are protected, it is where information is provided to the public on behalf of the Defense Department.
Transparency and accountability are not obstacles to national security. They are essential to maintaining public trust in the military and the civilian leaders who oversee it.
MRE believes meaningful engagement between the Defense Department and the press serves both the public interest and the military’s own commitment to accountability.
MRE calls on the Pentagon to immediately reverse this decision, restore press access to the public affairs office and rescind the broader restrictions that have increasingly impeded journalists’ ability to do their jobs.
The Pentagon’s public affairs mission is to inform the public, not isolate itself from it.