Pentagon fires editor-in-chief of US military newspaper, reportedly for opposing censorship

Erik Slavin, the editor-in-chief of the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes, announced Friday that he is being fired for insubordination. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the Pentagon is also removing publisher Max Lederer and journalist Lara Korte.

Slavin stated that his termination notice cited his comments in a CBS interview where he declared that hypothetical censorship of news for service members would be a personal red line. Lederer, who was set to retire in September, wrote in an email that the Pentagon had a new vision for the newspaper that differed from his own. Korte also stated on social media that she was fired for telling CBS News she works for Stars and Stripes, not the Pentagon.

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According to the notice, I am being fired for stating in a CBS interview that hypothetical censorship of news for service members would constitute a personal red line.

The Pentagon has not immediately responded to requests for comment. Stars and Stripes, which has published continuously since World War II and serves U.S. troops globally, receives Defense Department funding but has historically maintained editorial independence.

Recently, the Pentagon appointed a military deputy to the publisher. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell quoted an open letter from this deputy expressing a desire to improve digital impact for service members. This move comes after former President Donald Trump reversed a Pentagon decision to shut down the newspaper. Press freedom advocates have previously criticized broader Trump administration policies that limited journalists' access to the Pentagon, citing concerns about freedom of speech.

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We may never be able to have the same impact for our service members digitally that our paper had during World War II in a vastly different media environment, but I also believe that we can do better - that we must do better for our most important constituency, the men and women who make up the US Armed Forces.