Story highlights Media contacts are limited to field office managers and public relations employees

The restrictions come amid multiple FBI leak investigations

(CNN) The FBI is overhauling its media policy, restricting contacts between the news media and its employees amid controversy over alleged leaks, bureau officials told CNN.

The new media policy was rolled out this week at a conference in Washington attended by FBI special agents in charge of its 56 field offices, according to officials who attended.

Media access to top officials at the FBI became more common in recent years under FBI Director James Comey, part of a transparency effort he said was aiming at demystifying the FBI and helping the public understand its mission. But the new policy appears to curtail that access.

An official familiar with the development of the new policy described it as largely a "clarification" intended to reinforce existing rules on who is authorized to talk to reporters, not a step back from Comey's transparency initiatives.

The restrictions come amid multiple leak investigations looking into whether current or government officials provided information for recent news stories about contacts between associates of the Trump campaign and suspected Russian operatives.

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