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The Pentagon has banned press photographers from taking photos inside the press briefing room after several media outlets published what its representatives categorized as “unflattering” photos of Secretary Pete Hegseth.
As reported by The Washington Post, photographers from the Associated Press, Reuters, and Getty Images published photos of Hegseth speaking to the media after a March 2 press conference with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This is typical for nearly all press conferences held by government officials, but Hegseth’s staff reportedly said that they did not like how the Secretary looked in those photos and photographers were then not allowed into press briefings on either March 3 or March 10.
The decision has raised serious First Amendment concerns, as excluding journalists based on dissatisfaction with accurate news coverage “constitutes viewpoint discrimination and an attempt to control the visual record of government activity,” the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) says.
Instead of allowing photographers to capture their own images, Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson says that “photographs from the briefings are immediately released online for the public and press to use. If that hurts the business model for certain news outlets, then they should consider applying for a Pentagon press credential.”
Last year, the Pentagon instituted a new rule for the media that required outlets to agree to a policy that it can’t publish information from the Defense Department that wasn’t explicitly authorized. Multiple media outlets refused to sign this agreement, which caused them to lose their credentials. However, the Pentagon made exceptions to this rule for that March 2 conference.
“Visual journalists are not public relations staff, and their role is not to produce flattering portraits of government officials. Their job is to document events truthfully as they occur,” NPPA General Counsel Mickey H. Osterreicher says.
“Retaliating against journalists because accurate photographs were published raises profound constitutional concerns and reflects exactly the kind of government interference with newsgathering the First Amendment was designed to prevent.”
“Excluding photographers from Pentagon briefings because officials did not like how published images portrayed them shows an astonishingly poor sense of priorities in the midst of a war and is, for a public servant, not a good look,” NPPA President Alex Garcia adds.
“A free press cannot function if government officials decide that only favorable images of public officials may be created or distributed. The public has the right to an independent visual record of what its government is doing, not a carefully curated collection of images approved by those in power. We urge news organizations to reject the use of government handout photos of the briefings.”
The NPPA has urged news outlets to refuse to publish government-issued photographs for events where news photographers were barred from entry for content-based reasons and calls for the Department of Defense to immediately restore full access for credentialed press photographers and reaffirm its commitment to transparency and the essential role independent journalists play in documenting government actions on behalf of the public.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.com.
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