Pentagon spokesman says it will issue new press credentials but remove media offices

By Canadian Press on March 23, 2026.

The U.S. Defense Department will issue new press credentials but remove media offices from the Pentagon after a judge sided with The New York Times in a lawsuit regarding limits on reporters’ access to the building, a department official announced Monday.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the agency disagrees with the ruling and will appeal. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, D.C., last week sided with the newspaper and ruled that the Pentagon’s new policy illegally restricts the press credentials of reporters who walked out of the building rather than agree to the new rules.

Parnell said the reporters will be able to work from an “annex” that will be on the Pentagon grounds but outside the building, which “will be available when ready.”

Jonathan J. Cooper, The Associated Press