Latest news with #pressaccess
CNN
4 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
White House ban on Associated Press can continue, appeals court rules
A federal appeals court will allow the White House to exclude the Associated Press from access to the Oval Office, Mar-a-Lago and Air Force One if it chooses, according to a new court order in the ongoing legal battle over press access. The decision hangs on a court finding that some White House spaces are not open to the broader public or large groups of press, and so the White House can choose which journalists it chooses to admit. A lower court judge previously blocked the administration from excluding the Associated Press, and the appeals court has sided with the White House at this time. The decision could bring about more appeals over the White House press corps and its access around the president. 'These restricted presidential spaces are not First Amendment fora opened for private speech and discussion,' DC Circuit Judge Neomi Rao wrote Friday. 'No one suggests the Oval Office is a traditional public forum such as a park or sidewalk held in trust for expressive activity.' The court, in a split 2-1 decision Friday, didn't include excluding the AP from the larger East Room space. CNN has reached out to the White House and AP for comment. The AP has claimed the White House is discriminatory against it because of a First Amendment-protected viewpoint –specifically not changing its editorial style guide to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, as President Donald Trump has directed.
CNN
4 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
White House ban on Associated Press can continue, appeals court rules
A federal appeals court will allow the White House to exclude the Associate Press from access to the Oval Office, Mar-a-Lago and Air Force One if it chooses, according to a new court order in the ongoing legal battle over press access. The decision hangs on a court finding that some White House spaces are not open to the broader public or large groups of press, and so the White House can choose which journalists it chooses to admit. A lower court judge previously blocked the administration from excluding the Associated Press, and the appeals court has sided with the White House at this time. The decision could bring about more appeals over the White House press corps and its access around the president. 'These restricted presidential spaces are not First Amendment fora opened for private speech and discussion,' DC Circuit Judge Neomi Rao wrote Friday. 'No one suggests the Oval Office is a traditional public forum such as a park or sidewalk held in trust for expressive activity.' The court, in a split 2-1 decision Friday, didn't include excluding the AP from the larger East Room space. CNN has reached out to the White House and AP for comment. The AP has claimed the White House is discriminatory against it because of a First Amendment-protected viewpoint –specifically not changing its editorial style guide to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, as President Donald Trump has directed.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pentagon bans reporters from certain areas of building without escort
The Pentagon on Friday released new rules for reporters that cover the building, banning journalists from certain areas without an official escort or prior approval, heavily curtailing press access to military officials. Reporters can now only wander certain hallways, mostly near the Pentagon's entrances and the food court, with the areas off limits including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's physical office spaces and the Joint Staff physical office spaces 'without an official approval and escort from the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs,' according to a memo signed by Hegseth. Reporters are also banned from the Pentagon Athletic Center, the building's gym. 'While the Department remains committed to transparency, the Department is equally obligated to protect [classified national intelligence information] and sensitive information – the unauthorized disclosure of which could put the lives of U.S. Service members in danger,' Hegseth wrote. He added that updated security measures 'are needed to reduce the opportunities for in-person inadvertent and unauthorized disclosures.' The Pentagon under Hegseth has increasingly enacted measures to limit reporters' abilities to work from the building, including evicting eight news organizations from their workspaces in order to rotate in outlets more friendly to the Trump administration. In early February, the Defense Department announced that NBC News, the New York Times, NPR and Politico had to vacate, with their spaces to be taken over by One America News Network, the New York Post, Breitbart News and Huffpost. After reporters for several outlets inquired as to why their employers were singled out to lose their desks, the Pentagon days later announced another four publications would also be asked to leave their spaces. Those were CNN, The Washington Post, The Hill and War Zone, replaced with Newsmax, the Washington Examiner, the Daily Caller and the Free Press. The Pentagon Press Association called the decision 'unreasonable.' Just weeks later on Feb. 21, the Pentagon banned reporters from the press briefing room unless officials were holding a briefing. The move was seen as contentious given the room is one of the few places in the building that had wifi for reporters to file their stories. Since the start of the Trump administration, DOD officials have only held one on-camera briefing in the room. Reporters typically occupy space in places like the Pentagon, White House and State Department to access officials they need to do their jobs and quickly file stories. Under the new guidelines, Pentagon Press Corps members must complete a new national security briefing form. And in the coming weeks, the building will reissue reporters a new style of badge with a clearer 'PRESS' identifier, according to the memo. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Guardian
24-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Pete Hegseth, beset by leaks, clamps down on press inside Pentagon
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth moved on Friday to dramatically curtail press access inside the Pentagon, seemingly punishing the news media for reporting on leaks of classified and unclassified information in recent weeks. The changes, announced in a two-page memo issued by Hegseth, effectively boxed credentialed reporters into one corner on one floor of the building that houses the press office and spaces used by news organizations. To walk anywhere else in the Pentagon, including past areas occupied by the joint chiefs and the press office for the joint chiefs, reporters will need to request permission and be escorted by an official, the memo said. Reporters will also be banned from accessing the Pentagon Athletic Center and be issued new credentials which more clearly state the words 'PRESS' on the badge. The current credential has the letters written in regular size at the bottom. Hegseth said in the memo that he was adding the most draconian access restrictions in decades in order to limit the number of leaks coming from the Pentagon. But it was not clear how limiting access to unclassified and non-secured hallways where military foreign military officials assigned to the Pentagon regularly walk around would stop leaks, suggesting the measures were more punitive. Hegseth has taken an adversarial posture towards the news media since his arrival, including by ejecting a number of news organizations like the New York Times, CNN, Politico and NPR from their dedicated workspaces inside the building. 'There is no way to sugarcoat it. Today's memo by Secretary Hegseth appears to be a direct attack on the freedom of the press and America's right to know what its military is doing,' the board of the Pentagon Press Association said in a statement that also questioned why Hegseth had failed to hold a press briefing in his first 100 days. The Pentagon has been beset by leaks since Hegseth took over and, in March, the secretary launched an investigation into at least nine separate disclosures that ranged from unflattering personal stories about his use of Signal group chats to policy deliberations. The investigation also developed a criminal component after allegedly classified information about flexible options for the US military to take control of the Panama canal, including by sending US troops, emerged in news reports. In an attempt to stop the leaks, Hegseth also summarily fired three top aides last month: his deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick, senior adviser Dan Caldwell and the deputy defense secretary's chief of staff Colin Carroll. The firings appear to have had no effect on the leaks. The Guardian has reported on leaks about the leak investigation itself. Other outlets have reported on leaks from the defense department inspector general's probe into Hegseth's use of signal. The new restrictions at the Pentagon are comparable in many ways to the limited press access at the White House, where reporters have unescorted access to the press office area, the briefing room and where news organizations keep workspaces. But the Pentagon is set to be more restricted than other major executive branch agencies, including law-enforcement entities usch as the justice department, where reporters with a permanent badge can walk around the first floor of the building unescorted.
