CNN, Politico and MS NOW have sued the Trump administration after the three US media organisations were barred from the White House.
President Donald Trump announced the ban on Friday, accusing the organisations of publishing “fiction or lies” about his administration. The outlets said their reporters were denied access to the White House on Saturday.
In a joint statement on Monday, the three organisations said they were taking legal action to “defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports”.
The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court in Washington on Monday. The media organisations are asking a judge to rule quickly that Trump’s ban is unconstitutional and prevent his aides from enforcing it.
The First Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits the government from “abridging” freedom of the press. Courts have traditionally interpreted the provision as limiting the government’s ability to discriminate against media organisations based on the content of their reporting.
CNN, Politico and MS NOW said in their statement: “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting.
“Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
The legal action came as major US television networks announced they would suspend their White House pooled coverage of Trump.
The pooled system allows media organisations to share coverage of presidential events, reducing costs and the amount of equipment and personnel needed.
Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton, who currently holds a rotating role helping to organise television crews covering the White House, said in an email seen by the BBC that “effective today, the TV pool will not be covering designated as pool coverage” of President Trump.
The email said the decision followed the White House “preventing” CNN from carrying out its pool duties during Trump’s trip to New York.
It added that “there will be no replacement pool put in place”.
CNN, one of five US news organisations in the White House television press pool, had been scheduled to cover Trump’s trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday and Tuesday.
But on Monday morning, CNN’s five-seat booth in the basement of the White House press area was empty and closed, with its screens and monitors switched off.
A CNN crew instead broadcast live from a public pavement outside the secured area of the White House grounds.
ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC issued a joint statement saying: “The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government.
“No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”
The five networks are among the US outlets with the infrastructure to provide live coverage of the White House and presidential events.
The White House media slot remained vacant, while conservative television outlet Real America’s Voice was listed as a “secondary” crew for Trump’s trip to New York.
Trump is scheduled to meet New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday.
When Trump announced the ban on CNN, Politico and MS NOW last week, he did not identify specific reports that prompted the decision.
He later said: “it’s really just cumulative stories over the last few years”.
Trump also said there “may be others to join them”.
Asked what he meant, he said: “Others to come in terms of fake news? Well, you know, the New York Times is fake news, the Washington Post is fake news.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the White House was not “instituting an assault on the Free Press” and said he was targeting “FAKE NEWS”.
The dispute follows another confrontation between the Trump administration and the media over access.
In February, the White House announced that it would take control of the press pool that has access to Trump. The pool had been managed for more than a century by the White House Correspondents’ Association.
That month, the administration also moved to bar Associated Press reporters and photographers from restricted-access areas, including the Oval Office and Air Force One, over the organisation’s continued use of the term “Gulf of Mexico” instead of “Gulf of America”.
The AP sued the administration and that case remains ongoing.
Previous US administrations have also attempted to limit access for particular news organisations.
In 2009, the Obama administration tried to exclude Fox News from a press pool interview with an administration official. Following objections from the other four networks in the pool, Fox News was granted access.
Unlike the current exclusion of CNN, MS NOW and Politico, the Obama administration’s action involved one specific interview rather than all pool coverage.
Trump has repeatedly criticised news organisations. His administration has also taken legal action against outlets including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC.
Some of those lawsuits have ended with media organisations agreeing to multimillion-dollar settlements, while Trump’s lawsuit against the BBC remains ongoing.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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