On Thursday, The New York Times accused the Pentagon in a lawsuit about infringing on the constitutional rights of journalists by imposing a set of new restrictions on reporting about the military.

Within the lawsuit, NYT, New York Times, argued that the Defends Department’s new policy had violated the U.S First Amendment and ‘ seeks to restrict journalists’ ability to do what journalists have always done ‘.

In October, a requirement of having reporters sign a 21-paged form that sets restrictions on journalistic activities, which also includes requests for story tips and inquiries to Pentagon sources.

As written in a New York Times article on the matter, reports who don’t comply could lose their press passes, and the Pentagon has accorded itself ‘ unbridled discretion ‘ to enforce the policy as it sees fit ( Wimpie , Dec, 4, 25 ).

The lawsuit proceeds to get into further depth about how reporting any information ‘ not approved by department officials ‘ could potentially lead to punishment, apparently regardless of weather or not news gathering occurs on or off Pentagon grounds.

A draft of the new restriction guidelines first emerged in September, and was eventually after some revision from lawyers representing news organizations. The finished rules were released on October 6th, with NYT to surrender their badges instead of signing the document.

Allegedly, many other major news organizations released statements in October in regards of the Pentagon’s new policy, condemning them for an incursion on the First Amendment.

As cited in the same article mentioned previously, “ The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections, “ as written in a statement from ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC News ( Wimpie , Dec, 4, 25 ).