The New York Times announced Thursday that it has launched legal action against the Pentagon for implementing a series of restrictive measures against the press that it considers unconstitutional.

The US Department of Defense, recently renamed the "Department of War" by the Trump administration, has drastically tightened its control over the press.

In a recent document, almost unanimously rejected by the American and international press, including AFP, the department asked accredited journalists not to solicit or publish certain information without explicit authorization from it, at the risk of losing their accreditation.

In the text of its legal action, filed in a Washington court, the New York Times argues that the government is violating the First Amendment of the American Constitution through these rules, which guarantees five fundamental freedoms, including freedom of the press.

The administration "seeks to restrict the ability of journalists to do what they have always done - ask questions of government employees and gather information to report facts that go beyond official statements."

The document that the Pentagon asked journalists to sign is part of a broader offensive, launched since Donald Trump's return to power, restricting their access to the Department of Defense - the country's largest employer with an annual budget of several hundred billion dollars.

In the preceding months, the department evicted eight media outlets from their Pentagon offices, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN. Press conferences there were drastically reduced.

The ministry also restricted the movement of journalists within the site, requiring them to be escorted out of a limited number of areas.