The Pentagon Press Office has been designated a classified space in the complex, with journalists being evicted from the area to make room for a new classified speechwriter area.
“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,” Joel Valdez, a spokesperson for the War Department, announced in a post on X on June 1.
He was responding to a post from a journalist which noted that the area has routinely been used to allow journalists to speak with public affairs officers, who have historically answered press questions.
Members of the press have had some form of restricted access to the Pentagon since 1943, with the Pentagon Press Office opening around the time of the Vietnam War. Following the leak of the Pentagon Papers, journalists’ access was restricted, but press access to the compound had become more open in the intervening years.
Now, Valdez said, journalists will be able to access Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs Sean Parnell “by appointment only.”
Valdez suggested that there was nothing irregular about the change.
“These 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.”
The move comes as the Pentagon and President Donald Trump have decried a flurry of classified intelligence leaks to the press and raised concerns that the administration is locking down press access to information in the Pentagon.