The Pentagon announced Thursday that it will assume control over editorial decision-making at Stars and Stripes, the independent newspaper serving U.S. military personnel worldwide, the outlet reports.

“The Department of War is returning Stars & Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters. We are bringing Stars & Stripes into the 21st century,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top public affairs official and a close adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, wrote in a statement posted to X. “We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members.”

According to the outlet, “the statement appears to challenge the editorial independence of Stars and Stripes, which while a part of the Pentagon’s Defense Media Activity has long retained independence from editorial oversight from the Pentagon under a congressional mandate that it be governed by First Amendment principles.”

Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin reaffirmed the publication’s commitment to independent coverage, telling staff worldwide that “the people who risk their lives in defense of the Constitution have earned the right to the press freedoms of the First Amendment,” pledging, “we will not compromise on serving them with accurate and balanced coverage, holding military officials to account when called for.”

According to reporting from The Daily Wire, the Pentagon plans to have active-duty service members produce all future Stars and Stripes content. Half of the newspaper’s website would reportedly feature material created by the War Department, including official articles and imagery.

According to Parnell, “Stars & Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters. It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY. No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints. Stars & Stripes has a proud legacy of reporting news that’s important to our service members. The Department of War is committed to ensuring the outlet continues to reflect that proud legacy.”

Several Democratic senators condemned the decision, accusing the Pentagon of undermining press freedom. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), a former Marine who shared that he read Stars and Stripes while deployed in Iraq, said its “ independence is exactly why troops trust it. The Pentagon’s attempt to take over editorial decisions undermines that trust.”

Jacqueline Smith, the paper’s ombudsman, warned that such a shift would “amount to unnecessary control and the perception of propaganda,” saying it would blur the line between journalism and public relations. “The other fifty percent of content would hold no credibility,” she added.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly defended the plan, linking it to the administration’s broader initiative to “revitalize and modernize” traditional defense institutions.

Stars and Stripes traces its roots to the Civil War and has continuously been published since World War II, operating under a Defense Department directive requiring” a free flow of news and information to its readership without news management or censorship.”