Leading US news organizations filed a lawsuit on Monday against the US government after the White House abruptly stripped their correspondents of press access.
“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” CNN, MS NOW, and Politico said in a joint statement released on US social media company X, warning that the move “threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
The outlets said that they formally notified the administration of the legal challenge to defend their First Amendment rights, the US Constitution’s guarantee of a free press, and protect the principle that federal authorities cannot determine what news media publish.
US President Donald Trump barred reporters from the three organizations from entering the White House compound last week. Security personnel turned away journalists from all three companies on Saturday morning following the directive.
Members of the White House television pool, comprising ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News Media, and NBC News, issued a joint statement in solidarity with the excluded outlets.
“The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government,” the pool members said, adding: “No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”
Trump defended the exclusions by asserting he was “tired of reading and seeing fake news” produced by the outlets, and that he dislikes “dishonest press.”
“The White House is not instituting an assault on the free press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the fake news, something that has grown like cancer in our beloved United States of America,” Trump later wrote on his social media platform Truth Social in response to the lawsuit.
The US president described the coverage as “corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control,” warning that it represents “a threat to our national security, and must be stopped, now!
