Erik Slavin, the editor-in-chief of military newspaper Stars and Stripes, told the BBC on Saturday that he's worried about censorship in the Pentagon after he was fired by the Department of Defense for “insubordination” in the wake of an unauthorized media appearance.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth calls on reporters during a press briefing at the Pentagon on May 5, 2026 in Arlington, Virginia.
Slavin, who was in the top role at the paper for less than a year, told the BBC he thinks Pentagon officials are becoming "less and less inclined to speak on the record" despite living "in a time when we really need to hear what's happening."
Slavin said the defense department cited insubordination and an unauthorized media appearance as the reason for his dismissal and he said he thinks the firing was a direct response to a comment he made on CBS News calling censorship of news for service members "a red line” that cannot be crossed.
The firing comes about two weeks after Stars and Stripes reported on apparent suicide attempts from service members experiencing a near record-breaking deployment aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which multiple military leaders and President Donald Trump repeatedly denied before agreeing to end the deployment.
