Trump can bar AP from some White House events for now, US appeals court says

Hindustan Times

15 hours ago

June 6 - President Donald Trump is free to bar the Associated Press from some White House media events after a U.S. appeals court on Friday paused a lower court ruling mandating that journalists be given access.
The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit temporarily blocks an order by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, who ruled on April 8 that the Trump administration must allow journalists access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and White House events while the news agency's lawsuit moves forward.
The sued in February after the White House restricted the news outlet's access over its decision to continue referring to the Gulf of Mexico in its coverage despite Trump renaming the body of water the Gulf of America.
The 's lawyers argued the new policy violated the First Amendment of the Constitution, which protects free speech rights.
McFadden, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, said in his ruling that if the White House opens its doors to some journalists it cannot exclude others based on their viewpoints.
Trump administration lawyers said the president has absolute discretion over media access to the White House and that McFadden's ruling infringed on his ability to decide whom to admit to sensitive spaces.
'The Constitution does not prohibit the President from considering a journalist's prior coverage in evaluating how much access he will grant that journalist,' lawyers for the administration said in a court filing.
On April 16, the accused the Trump administration of defying the court order by continuing to exclude its journalists from some events and then limiting access to Trump for all news wires, including Reuters and Bloomberg.
Reuters and the both issued statements denouncing the new policy, which puts wire services in a larger rotation with about 30 other newspaper and print outlets.
Other media customers, including local news organizations that have no presence in Washington, rely on the wire services' real-time reports of presidential statements as do global financial markets.
The says in its stylebook that the Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years and, as a global news agency, the will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.