The New York Times filed a second lawsuit against the Department of Defense on Monday over restrictions on press access to the Pentagon implemented by the Trump administration, Anadolu reports.

The lawsuit filed by the Times and its reporter Julian Barnes names the department, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, spokesman Sean Parnell and senior official Timothy Parlatore as defendants.

The lawsuit alleges that the policy that mandates all reporters to enter the Pentagon with an escort is “blatant retaliation” against the Times “not only for their editorial viewpoint but also for protecting their constitutional rights in the lawsuit.”

“The interim policy is patently vindictive, wholly unreasonable, and patently arbitrary and capricious. The defendants adopted it as a means of thwarting a district court order and punishing The Times for her editorial viewpoint as well as her successful lawsuit protecting her constitutional rights,” the lawsuit says.

It alludes to the fact that the current policy is an administration decision after another court ruled that previous restrictions were unconstitutional and a violation of free speech.

Federal Judge Paul Friedman ruled in March that the Pentagon’s restrictions on the press violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. U.S.

“The policy the Pentagon adopted in response departs significantly from long-standing norms at the Defense Department that allowed reporters unescorted access to unsecured corridors so they could move from press office to press office and ask questions on short notice as events unfolded,” the lawsuit says.

“To ask even one question, Barnes and other reporters must call or send an email for a meeting, wait for a response, get an escort, ask their question, and return to the library outside the Pentagon, only to repeat the process for the next source. Journalists must either give up on conversations or spend hours on the phone tracking schedules and moving in and out of the building,” the lawsuit added.

Pentagon spokesman Parnell dismissed the Times’ legal action as “nothing more than an effort to remove barriers to them getting their hands on classified information”.

“They want to roam freely in the corridors of the Pentagon and unescorted, a privilege they do not have in any other federal building. The Department’s policy is strictly legal and designed to protect national security information from illegal criminal disclosure,” he added on the US social media platform X.

Source: prizrenpost