(AFP) – Lawyers for the Associated Press (AP) urged a US federal judge on Thursday to strike down a White House ban on the news agency attending key presidential events. The organization’s journalists have been barred from the Oval Office and traveling on Air Force One since February 11 for continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico — and not the “Gulf of America” as decreed by President Donald Trump.
District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, declined last month to immediately order the White House to restore full access to the AP but scheduled a court hearing in Washington for Thursday to revisit the case. The AP, in a suit filed against three White House officials, said the denial of access to the wire service violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and of the press.
Speaking at the start of the hearing, AP lawyer Charles Tobin called the exclusion “abject retaliation” that has had “an adverse impact and chilling effect on the entire journalism industry.” In filings, the White House has rejected that argument, saying “the president has discretion to decide who will have special media access to exclusive events.”
Two weeks after barring the AP, the White House stripped journalists of the nearly century-old power to decide which of them will cover presidential events. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the independent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) would no longer have a “monopoly” on choosing members of the press pool. The pool is a small group of reporters that covers the US president in often cramped spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One, and shares their material with other news organizations.
On the presidential jet, the press pool consists of 13 newspaper and wire service journalists, photographers, and TV and radio reporters, while for events in the White House itself it is slightly larger. Some organizations have permanent places while others rotate. The WHCA — of which AFP is a member — condemned the decision by the White House to choose pool members, saying it “tears at the independence of the free press.”
In its style guide, the AP notes that the Gulf of Mexico has “carried that name for more than 400 years” and the agency “will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.” “As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences,” the AP said.
The 180-year-old organization has long been a pillar of US journalism and provides news to print, TV, and radio outlets across the United States and around the world. Evan Vucci, chief White House photographer for the AP, testified at Thursday’s hearing that the access ban has left the agency “struggling to keep up.” “It’s hurting us big time. We are basically dead in the water on major news stories,” Vucci said.
© 2024 AFP
