The Associated Press scored a win Tuesday after a federal judge ruled the Trump administration cannot limit the organization’s access in covering the White House.
According to The Hill, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled the news organization should have the same access as other media, including the Oval Office and Air Force One.
The White House stripped the AP’s access to these areas after it refused to use “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico” in its stylebook.
Basically, the judge’s ruling states if other journalists have access, so does the AP. This, however, does not include access to interviews,
“This injunction does not limit the various permissible reasons the Government may have for excluding journalists from limited-access events. It does not mandate that all eligible journalists, or indeed any journalists at all, be given access to the President or nonpublic government spaces. It does not prohibit government officials from freely choosing which journalists to sit down with for interviews or which ones’ questions they answer. And it certainly does not prevent senior officials from publicly expressing their own views,” McFadden wrote.
“No, the Court simply holds that under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists— be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere — it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints,” he wrote. “The Constitution requires no less.”
The judge’s order will go into effect April 13. This will give the Trump administration time to appeal if it wants to.
Many news organizations use the AP stylebook for consistency on spelling, grammar, and references to people and places.
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