Media outlets and organizations are preparing for a battle over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new rules restricting press access at the Pentagon.

Legal experts and media advocates say the new policy appears to mark an unprecedented attack on press freedom, pointing to a provision that restricts the release of even unclassified information.

The Pentagon says media outlets are misconstruing the new rules. Hegseth, who has repeatedly accused journalists of attempting to “sabotage” President Trump’s agenda, wrote on the social platform X the move would establish that “the ‘press’ does not run the Pentagon — the people do.”

To obtain or renew a Pentagon pass, according to a 17-page memo released on Sept. 19, reporters must sign a contract that recognizes that department information must b

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