Press freedom: Court says White House can deny AP reporters access

A US federal judge has ruled that the White House does not have to grant the AP news agency access to attend government meetings. The AP has not proven that the news agency has suffered irreparable harm as a result of the Trump administration's decision, Judge Trevor N. McFadden argued on Monday. However, his ruling is only provisional. McFadden, appointed by US President Trump, said he would have to investigate the matter further. He called on the White House to reconsider excluding the AP, saying it was not very helpful.

The agency filed a lawsuit in Washington, DC, against three representatives of the US government . The AP invoked freedom of the press and asked a federal judge to lift a ten-day blockade of its journalists. The defendants are White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, her deputy Taylor Budowich and press secretary Karoline Leavitt. According to the AP, the blockade is an unconstitutional attempt by the White House to interfere with freedom of speech.

The news agency is therefore demanding that its reporters be allowed back into the Oval Office in the White House, the presidential plane Air Force One and other areas where the agency works. However, Judge McFadden questioned this argument. Although he considered the discrimination of a news agency in light of the decision to report on certain content to be "problematic", he doubted whether the current administration would actually is tied to the composition of the press pool of which the AP has been a member for more than a century.

The administration of President Donald Trump denied the AP access after the agency decided to continue to refer to the sea between the United States, Mexico and Cuba as the Gulf of Mexico. Trump, however, had decreed shortly after taking office that the marginal sea of ​​the Atlantic should henceforth be called the Gulf of America.

The AP wants to use the name Gulf of Mexico, which has been common for centuries, to ensure that foreign audiences can also easily identify the place name. Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt, however, accused the report of lying and said the government would continue to exclude news organizations that ignore Trump's line.

AP believes that the White House's actions violate the core of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibits the government from punishing free speech. The White House, on the other hand, argues that access to the president is a privilege, not a right.