Three staffers at Stars and Stripes, the military publication, sued the Pentagon and top officials on Thursday. The trio, including the outlet’s editor-in-chief, claimed they were illegally pushed out over personal statements protected under the First Amendment.
The Pentagon last week fired Erik Slavin, the outlet’s editor-in-chief, Max Lederer, its publisher, and Lara Korte, a reporter who covers the Middle East — a blow to press freedoms within the US military. Stars and Stripes has had a decades-long record of editorial independence.
The trio accused the US Department of Defense of charging them with insubordination for publicly supporting that editorial independence in covering the agency, which partly funds the publication.
They alleged the Defense Department also retaliated against a Stars and Stripes story that exposed conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
“Defendants are attempting to fire Plaintiffs for speaking up as private citizens in support of the press’s freedom to cover military operations, its need to reach all servicepersons, and in retaliation for their publication of a news report on deteriorating conditions aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln during its extended tour of duty in the Mid-East,” the complaint reads.
