Several major news outlets, including Reuters, Associated Press (AP), and HuffPost, were on Wednesday blocked from covering President Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting by the White House.
However, it is yet to be known whether the blockade will be permanent or a one-off censorship.
This move is part of the administration’s new policy on media coverage, which gives the White House control over which outlets can cover the president in smaller spaces like the Oval Office.
Only select media outlets, such as TV crews from ABC and Newsmax, and correspondents from Axios and Bloomberg News, were allowed to cover the event, according to Reuters.
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which traditionally coordinates the rotation of the presidential press pool, has protested the new policy.
Reuters, AP, and Bloomberg in a joint statement released in reaction to the new development, emphasised the importance of a free press in a democracy.
“It is essential in a democracy for the public to have access to news about their government from an independent, free press,” they said.
They explained that the services “have long worked to ensure that accurate, fair and timely information about the presidency is communicated to a broad audience of all political persuasions, both in the United States and globally. Much of the White House coverage people see in their local news outlets, wherever they are in the world, comes from the wires.”
HuffPost on the other hand condemned the White House decision as a violation of the First Amendment right to freedom of the press.
The move has sparked concerns about the administration’s control over media access and the potential impact on the public’s right to know.
On Tuesday, the WHCA also issued a statement protesting the new White House policy.
The move follows the Trump administration’s decision to bar the Associated Press from being in the pool because it has declined to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, the name Trump has assigned the body of water, or update its widely followed stylebook to reflect such a change.
White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt said the five major cable and broadcast television networks would continue to hold their rotating seats in the pool while the White House would add streaming services.
Rotating print reporters and radio reporters would continue to be included, while new outlets and radio hosts would be added.
