The United States Department of Defense has barred journalists from its press office, the latest move by the Pentagon to restrict media access since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez said on Monday that the administration had re-designated the office as a “Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility” due to its use by speechwriters with access to classified government information.

“These speechwriters routinely handle classified material and require SIPRNet access,” Valdez said in a statement. “As a result, journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space. Access to the office of the Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs and to the Press Secretary remains available by appointment only.”

The move follows a slew of steps by the Trump administration to curtail the ability of US media outlets to report on the military and other areas of government. In March, the Defense Department said it would no longer allow media outlets to maintain offices at the Pentagon after a judge sided with The New York Times in a lawsuit challenging new press credential rules.

The National Press Club condemned the latest restrictions as a “troubling escalation” in the Trump administration’s efforts to curtail media scrutiny of the Pentagon. “Independent reporting on the US military is not optional,” President Mark Schoeff Jr. said. “When journalists are pushed farther from the institutions they cover, the American people are left with less information, less transparency, and less oversight.”

The Freedom of the Press Foundation also criticized the move. “It’s rare for anything other than disingenuous spin and outright lies to come out of the Pentagon’s press office these days,” said Seth Stern, chief of advocacy. “The only thing sensitive or confidential about the information released by Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon is that it’s not true.”

Source: www.aljazeera.com