April 24 (UPI) -- The Department of Defense fired Stars and Stripes ombudsman Jacqueline Smith, whose job it was to protect the military-funded news organizations' editorial independence, without giving her a reason.
Smith was told on Thursday that her last day at the newspaper will be Tuesday and that "this action is not grievable," she wrote in an op-ed published by Stars and Stripes.
Sean Parnell, who is the assistant to the secretary of defense and the Pentagon's spokesman, in January announced that the department was planning to "refocus" the publication, of which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been critical.
Since the announcement, Smith said she has been concerned about Pentagon interference with Stars and Stripes' editorial independence and potential censorship of its reporters -- and written about it, as well as alerted members of Congress.
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