Three major international news wire agencies on Wednesday criticized new restrictions imposed by the White House on media access to President Donald Trump, calling the move a threat to press freedom.
On Tuesday, the administration revoked journalists’ nearly century-old authority to determine which reporters cover presidential events, with Trump asserting that he was now “calling those shots” regarding media access.
In a joint statement, the editorial leaders of Reuters, Bloomberg News, and The Associated Press condemned the decision. “It is essential in a democracy for the public to have access to news about their government from an independent, free press,” they stated, adding, “We believe that any steps by the government to limit the number of wire services with access to the President threatens that principle.”
The White House press pool, a small group of journalists assigned to closely cover the president, previously included permanent seats for the three agencies. However, under the new policy, their access has been reduced to a single shared seat.
The Associated Press has been completely barred from covering presidential events following a dispute with Trump over his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” In their statement, the agencies warned that restricting access “harms the spread of reliable information to people, communities, businesses and global financial markets that heavily depend on our reporting.”
The statement was signed by Associated Press Executive Editor Julie Pace, Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait, and Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni.
Previously, the White House Correspondents’ Association, an independent group of journalists, was responsible for selecting members of the pool. While Agence France-Presse (AFP) remains part of the press pool, its access has not been affected by the new policy.
Katherine Jacobsen, program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, emphasized the importance of media solidarity in response to the restrictions. “This is not a partisan issue, this is not a left-leaning media issue or a right-leaning media issue,” she told AFP. “This is an issue of access to information and the state of American democracy and what does it say if one of the world’s largest wire agencies is not able to access pool information at the White House.”
