Freedom of the press under threat

White House Reporters Association fights back

(Bild: EPA/YURI GRIPAS / POOL)

In future, the US President wants to decide for himself which reporters are allowed to report from the White House or the presidential plane. The Reporters Association, which was previously responsible for the assignment of reporters, opposes this move, arguing that it is an attempt to "undermine" reporting. 

The measure represents an intervention by the government in the working methods of independent media. "Our board will not support any attempt by this or any other administration to undermine independent reporting on the White House," wrote the chairman of the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA), Eugene Daniels of "Politico", in an email to the association's members.

Each media house must now decide for itself whether it wants to bow to the new rules imposed by the Trump administration, he said.

Press follows US President at every turn
Specifically, the dispute with the White House is about the composition of the so-called correspondent pool. In the USA, it is customary for the President to be accompanied by journalists almost around the clock. This is ensured by the pool - a group of reporters who are always present at the President's public appearances. In contrast to many other media outlets, the pool is given direct access to the President even when space is limited - often with the opportunity to ask him questions.

AP journalists have already been banned from the Oval Office for refusing to refer to the "Gulf of Mexico" as the "Gulf of America" as requested by the US government.

(Bild: AFP/JIM WATSON)

The selected reporters then share their information and forward it to other colleagues via a WHCA e-mail distribution list, among other things. In this way, they receive quotes almost in real time if no video material is available.

White House seizes control of journalist pool
The independent journalists' association WHCA previously had sovereignty over which reporters were allowed to attend these meetings on behalf of all members. There were fixed criteria and a rotation procedure for the composition of the pool - any WHCA member could apply.

On Tuesday, however, Trump's spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt announced that the White House was now taking control of this pool. "The WHCA has long dictated which journalists can ask the President of the United States questions in highly private situations," she said. "Not anymore."

Here, the White House spokeswoman announces the changes: 

Reuters and "Tagesspiegel" banned
On Wednesday, the new rule already applied to access to the cabinet meeting. The White House stipulated that there would be no room for the online portal "HuffPost", the news agency Reuters and the German newspaper "Tagesspiegel" on that day. As a member of the Foreign Press Group, which represents the foreign press, the "Tagesspiegel" is part of the expanded pool.

Important e-mail distribution list put on hold
WHCA Chairman Daniels has now instructed that the pool reports should no longer be sent via the association's mailing list in future. His reasoning: Since the White House has taken control of the process, it is no longer possible to ensure that the standards that have been established for decades continue to be upheld.

In this way, the WHCA wants to exert pressure on the White House - especially as the US government is also likely to have an interest in ensuring that information about Trump continues to be disseminated. At the same time, however, this also breaks a central chain of communication for all those reporters who are not on site themselves and are dependent on reliable, almost real-time reports from their colleagues. Initial internal criticism has already been voiced. 

Urgent warning: freedom of the press is under threat
Daniels himself emphasized that the WHCA decision had to take into account the great public interest, as information from the emails reached people all over the USA and the world. "I wish we weren't in this position," he wrote.

He also refuted the White House's criticism that the current composition of the pool is politically one-sided and left-leaning. He emphasized, as he has before, that the association provides a platform for a wide variety of media - "both strictly non-partisan and left- or right-leaning."

Daniels expressed concern that the US government was specifically selecting who was allowed to report on the president. In a free society, the government should not be able to pick and choose its own journalists. The WHCA chairman warned urgently that this posed a serious threat to freedom of the press.

Trump administration selects well-meaning questioners
Although the White House has recently expanded access for the media in principle, it has given preference to well-meaning questioners at press conferences and regular briefings. One example of this was the press conference between Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday. Trump gave the floor first to Brian Glenn, a right-wing online commentator who mainly praised Trump for his work.