Washington DC - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reportedly doubled down on his demands that journalists sign up to unprecedented restrictions on their Pentagon coverage.

According to the Columbia Journalism Review, the initial memo issued by the Department of Defense last month restricting reporters' access to the Pentagon has been revised, after the Pentagon Press Association threatened legal action.

The Pentagon had required reporters to sign a pledge of compliance and agree to a set of new rules restricting what and how they could report on – or face having their press passes revoked.

But as the deadline for signatures approached, no journalists were willing to agree.

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As a result, a slightly altered version of the memo was released Monday, CJR reported.

Organizations such as the Pentagon Press Association and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press have been busy trying to make sense of the changes, but are uneasy with the vagueness of the language.

Reporters fear that the language contained within the new guidelines could leave them vulnerable to retribution, as the document does not extend First Amendment protections to information obtained from Pentagon personnel.

Instead, if a reporter intends to publish a story based on "unsanctioned information," they are expected to first "discuss those materials" with the Pentagon Press Office.

"It's standard practice by us and any other news organization to get a Pentagon statement," an editor of a military outlet told CJR's Ivan L. Nagy.

"We would always discuss, I guess, in one sense of the word. But it looks like they want to have a discussion like, 'Okay, talk about it with us before you publish it so that we can tell you not to publish it.'"

Journalists and media organizations have until Tuesday, October 14, to make a decision on how to proceed.