CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued the Trump administration on Monday to restore their access to the White House, after reporters from all three outlets were barred from entering its premises over the weekend.
"This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit to protect our First Amendment rights and to defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes," the media outlets said in a joint statement.
“Without notice or due process, the White House revoked the credentials of our journalists because it disagrees with our reporting,” the statement continued. “If left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
The 27-page lawsuit, which names Trump, White House communications director Steven Cheung, Secret Service director Sean Curran and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles as defendants, says the president's announcement Friday that the media was barred from entering the residence "could not be a more direct attack on the First Amendment nor a more flagrant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles."
"The Constitution protects the freedom and property interests that news organizations and White House reporters have in their press credentials and the access those credentials give them to cover the White House for the benefit of the public. No official may deprive Plaintiffs of these interests on a whim - without notice, without process, and without warning - as the President did here," the lawsuit states.
On Monday, the five television networks - CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox News - which distribute coverage of presidential events to the rest of the press corps and media outlets around the world, announced that the service had been suspended until further notice.
“Effective today, the network will not cover events designated as Presidential activities,” Bryan Boughton, senior vice president of Fox News’ Washington bureau and current network chairman, wrote in an email to the rest of the White House press corps. “This follows the White House’s position that prevents CNN from fulfilling its assigned network duties. There will be no replacement network.”
Trump's trip will continue to be covered by print, radio and television reporters, along with photographers. The White House also has an indoor camera that follows the president and broadcasts the footage to social media channels.
During an Oval Office event on Friday, the president claimed his executive order was the result of "cumulative stories over the last two years" and not any single report, adding: "It just came to me."
"I don't want them in my office. I don't want them here," Trump added. "I would say the ban would go as far as it could go and if they could be cleared, I would love that."
On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the president decided to announce the media ban after his executive assistant, Natalie Harp, showed him a montage of MS NOW hosts criticizing the administration.
A day earlier, Akayla Gardner of MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), CNN reporter Betsy Klein, and Politico's Cheyenne Haslett were denied entry to the White House grounds by the Secret Service, which also confiscated their press passes. ©LAPSI.al
