At the moment, it feels very hard to think as Americans our voice matters. Opening the news app every morning has begun to feel like Russian roulette for our rights. Now, even that vital lifeline to democracy is dying, and Pete Hegseth pulled the plug a little further.

An article from The Independent outlines how, on Wednesday, Oct. 15, almost the entirety of the credentialed journalists who worked in the Pentagon walked out in solidarity and protest against Hegseth’s new media rules. Leaving only 15 journalists with credentialed access to Pentagon news.

To understand how scary and detrimental this walk-out is to the American public, it is first important to understand the full value of the freedom these workers provide to us.

The new rules proposed by Hegseth mean that journalists would no longer be allowed to report on information that had not been approved by “authorized persons who have received favorable determinations of eligibility for access,” Hegseth aims to spoon-feed journalists only the information that he wants released.

This comes after Hegseth’s Department of Defense, now the Department of War, has faced many media leaks. President Trump noted in a statement made on Tuesday, Oct. 14 that Hegseth finds the media to be dishonest and disruptive of world peace, and the new media rules aim to show the press that they do not run the Pentagon, the people do.

However, all of this information only leads me to one undeniable fact: the government does not deserve privacy.

This administration is responsible for everyone, not just those who agree with their policies, contrary to what they may be propagating.

This restriction of the press is nothing but another way to suppress anyone who does not agree with President Trump and his administration, and how they want to be viewed by the public.

A journalist’s job is to seek out information that is not accessible by simply being handed it. Take any journalism class, and I guarantee you will hear about Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. The two journalists who uncovered the Watergate scandal sought out information that was classified and not approved to be released. Information that ended up taking down a whole administration, a testament to the importance of journalism.

While the situations are different, who is to say that this censorship won’t cover up the next Watergate? Any journalist would know that their job is not to please the government, it is to make sure the public is informed.

By agreeing to these rules, journalists would no longer be journalists, they would be props in the government’s warped play. A play in which they aim to only show the public things that make them look good, effectively sending us further into dystopia.

With so much conflict currently coming to a head, I can only imagine what a lack of transparency and responsibility to the public will create in terms of this administration’s next moves. If Hegseth and his department have no obligation to inform the public, there is not a shadow of doubt in my mind that it will get ugly fast.

This is taking away any accountability that the Department of War had before, and leaves the public almost completely in the dark.

While the Pentagon is framing this as the media still having access, this undoubtedly makes it harder for journalists. Frankly, it is a way that autocrats are using threats and bullying to get people to bend to their will, as well as gain sympathetic support.

The journalists who decided to turn in their badges are nothing short of a demonstration of true bravery and commitment to the greater good. However, it is hard not to acknowledge how difficult it will continue to be for journalists if this is how the administration views our role in the world.

As an aspiring journalist myself, this is nothing short of frightening. Not only for the fact that it feels like the start of a war on the media, but also for the fact that it is destroying the important practice of healthy discourse and accountability for the government.

The bottom line is, the government serves the people, not the other way around. I am proud of the journalists who held to their oath and will continue to do their best to keep the public informed even outside of the Pentagon. But I am utterly disappointed in this administration’s clear jab at the public’s right to information, a clear degradation of our democratic rights.