The history of journalists at the Pentagon is marked by extraordinary moments. Journalistic scoops and exhaustive investigations emerged from this proximity to power, with reporters aware that doing their job well consisted of report what government authorities did not approvereveal disrespect for rules or violations of international law and expose ethical duplicities in sensitive matters.
In 2021, it was a journalistic investigation which showed that the process of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan was not, after all, peaceful, as the Biden administration said, rather chaotic, with drones attacking and killing a dozen civilians who did not belong to Daesh, contrary to what Washington claimed. During the Vietnam War, the Constitutional Court of the United States of America (USA) ruled that the Government could not prevent the newspaper “The New York Times” to publish documents that detailed US involvement in the conflict.
For this reason, “every government in the modern era has vehemently complained about information leaks that threaten national security, and most have promised extraordinary efforts to cover them”, recalls Peter Feaver, professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Duke University. The current administration goes “beyond previous governmentseven further than President Donald Trump went in his first term”.
The post The Trump administration’s censorship tactics are being “replicated globally”: what the exodus of journalists from the Pentagon reveals appeared first on Veritas News.
