Let government vet info: Pentagon to journalists

The US defense department is requiring journalists agree to submit anything they publish about it for govt approval as a condition of access, the latest Trump administration effort to control during peacetime what information the public learns about military operations.The new rule - part of an updated press credentialing process presented to news organisations this week - came in a memo by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell. The memo said that journalists will be required to sign the 10-page form as a condition of receiving and holding a press pass to report on the defense department. Anyone who signs agrees that Pentagon information "must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorising official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.

" To justify the new restriction, the Pentagon says it must protect classified national security information as well as anything designated "controlled unclassified information." Trump's second-term clashes with media flared up this week when ABC network took late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air for comments about Charlie Kirk after a pressure campaign, including threats by Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr.