Lawyers for the Associated Press will urge a US federal judge on Thursday to strike down a White House ban on the news agency attending key presidential events.
The US news organization has been barred from the Oval Office and traveling on Air Force One since February 11 for continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico — and not simply the “Gulf of America” as decreed by President Donald Trump.
District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, declined last month to immediately order the White House to restore full access to the AP but scheduled a court hearing in Washington for Thursday to revisit the case.
The AP, in a suit filed against three White House officials, said the denial of access to the wire service violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and of the press.
“The White House has ordered The Associated Press to use certain words in its coverage or else face an indefinite denial of access,” the AP said in its complaint. “The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government.”
Lawyers for the White House rejected the argument, saying “the president has discretion to decide who will have special media access to exclusive events.”
Two weeks after barring the AP, the White House stripped journalists of the nearly century-old power to decide which of them will cover presidential events.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the independent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) would no longer have a “monopoly” on choosing members of the press pool.
The pool is a small group of reporters that covers the US president in often cramped spaces like the Oval Office and Air Force One, and shares their material with other news organizations.
On the presidential jet, the press pool consists of 13 newspaper and wire service journalists, photographers and TV and radio reporters, while for events in the White House itself it is slightly larger.
Some organizations have permanent places while others rotate.
The WHCA — of which AFP is a member — condemned the decision by the White House to choose pool members saying it “tears at the independence of the free press.”
In its style guide, the AP notes that the Gulf of Mexico has “carried that name for more than 400 years” and the agency “will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.”
“As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences,” the AP said.
The 180-year-old organization has long been a pillar of US journalism and provides news to print, TV and radio outlets across the United States and around the world.
