Associated Press asks court to restore full White House access
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The filing late on March 3 for a preliminary injunction followed the court’s decision last week to deny a request to immediately reinstate the reporters’ access.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
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WASHINGTON – The Associated Press (AP) renewed its request for a judge to order the White House to allow the wire service’s reporters to resume covering US President Donald Trump’s events.
The filing late on March 3 for a preliminary injunction followed the court’s decision last week to deny a request to immediately reinstate the reporters’ access. AP also updated its lawsuit with fresh details and allegations that are intended to bolster the AP’s bid for court intervention.
The filing is the latest development in a suit the AP filed in February after its journalists were banned from parts of the White House for continuing to use “Gulf of Mexico” in its popular style guide after Mr Trump’s executive order renaming the body of water “Gulf of America”.
In the new filing, the AP says that in addition to blocking its reporters from their traditional participation in the White House press pool – in which a smaller group of reporters is designated to cover the president in the Oval Office or aboard Air Force One – the White House has prevented journalists from the wire service from attending larger events, like press conferences with foreign leaders visiting the White House.
The AP alleges the ban is an attempt to “intimidate and control the broader free press”, according to the new filing, and is asking to both be reinstated as a participant in the pool and to be assured access to broader events.
The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. But Mr Trump and other officials have said publicly that they are denying AP access because of a style guidance note that said that the “Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years” and that the organisation would “refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen”.
US District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, last week denied the AP’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have immediately restored the news wire’s access.
The judge found that the AP’s case differed from past fights over media coverage of the White House and that the outlet had not shown “irreparable harm” to its ability to cover the President. But he said that his ruling denying the short-term reinstatement did not bar the AP from seeking a longer-lasting injunction.
Days after that ruling, the White House initiated a new system of media access in which it chooses who is able to cover Mr Trump in certain settings, limiting the role of the three main news wires that traditionally distribute news of the presidency around the world.
The editors of the three news agencies – the AP, Reuters and Bloomberg News – released a joint statement objecting to the decision.
The AP’s new filing claims that the ban is already harming the news wire financially and “severely hampers the news from reaching thousands of AP customers and four billion people worldwide”.
The suit alleged that the administration’s decision to restrict its access was unconstitutional, violating the First Amendment’s free press protections. The news organisation also argued it violated its due process rights under the Fifth Amendment to have advance notice of the ban and a chance to contest it. The AP also said it has “a chilling effect on all news coverage of the White House”.
The next hearing before Mr McFadden is scheduled for March 20.
The case is The Associated Press v. Budowich, 25-cv-532, US District Court, District of Columbia. BLOOMBERG
