Three major American news outlets — CNN, Politico and MS NOW — are going to court in protest at the ban on their entry to US President Donald Trump’s White House.
They have said they are filing suit jointly to fight the ban imposed by Trump and to protect their right to report freely.
Trump abruptly banned the three outlets from the White House on Friday. His claim was that these outlets were spreading invented stories and false news against the government. The day after his order, the outlets’ journalists had their passes taken away and were not allowed to enter the White House.
In a joint statement after the episode, the three outlets said the Trump administration had cancelled their journalists’ cards without following any rules, simply because it disliked the news they published. This is a direct attack on the freedom of the press granted by the American constitution, they said, because the government can never decide what news journalists will publish and what they will not.
Such conflict between Donald Trump and the press is not new. He has previously jibed at well-known newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post as fake news outlets. A few months ago, journalists of the news agency AP faced a similar ban over the use of the name Gulf of Mexico, and litigation over that is still continuing. This time, however, the three outlets are going into the legal fight against the government’s obstruction together.