White House restricts journalist access to area housing communications offices

The White Home introduced Friday that journalists would not have free entry to part of the West Wing that homes the places of work of a number of senior communications officers, together with press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

In a memorandum, the Nationwide Safety Council mentioned journalists are prohibited from accessing Room 140, often known as ‘Higher Press’, which is situated close to the Oval Workplace, with out an appointment, claiming the transfer is important to defend probably delicate supplies and defend nationwide safety.

“To guard such materials and preserve coordination between the Nationwide Safety Council employees and the White Home communications employees, members of the press ought to not be allowed entry to Room 140 with out prior authorization within the type of an appointment with a licensed White Home employees member,” the memo mentioned.

Licensed White Home journalists might beforehand achieve entry to Room 140 at quick discover to talk with senior officers. Journalists should still have entry to a different space the place lower-level communications employees within the White Home have desks, the memo mentioned.

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The White Home introduced that journalists would not have free entry to part of the West Wing that homes places of work for senior communications officers. (Related Press)

The White Home Correspondents’ Affiliation argued that the brand new restrictions would impression reporters’ potential to query officers, guarantee transparency and maintain the federal government accountable.

“The White Home Correspondents’ Affiliation unequivocally opposes any effort to limit journalists to areas inside the White Home communications operations which have lengthy been open to information gathering, together with the workplace of the press secretary,” CBS Information White Home reporter Weijia Jiang, the group’s present president, mentioned in a press release.

White Home communications director Steven Cheung mentioned Friday that reporters have been caught secretly recording video and audio in places of work and wandering round restricted areas.

“Some reporters have been caught secretly recording video and audio from our places of work, together with pictures of delicate info, with out permission,” he wrote on

The Nationwide Safety Council mentioned journalists are prohibited from accessing room 140, often known as ‘Higher Press’. (AP)

The Clinton administration introduced an identical initiative in 1993 to limit press entry to Room 140, however this was later withdrawn after sturdy backlash.

This comes after the Pentagon lately introduced a brand new coverage by which information retailers should conform to new press restrictions or lose their media credentials and Pentagon workplaces.

The coverage requires journalists to comply with the brand new guidelines, together with that they are often thought of safety dangers and have their Pentagon press badges revoked in the event that they ask staff to reveal info not launched by the division, even when the data is unclassified.

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White Home communications director Steven Cheung claimed reporters had been caught secretly recording video and audio in places of work and wandering round restricted areas. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs)

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No less than 30 information retailers, together with Fox Information, refused to conform to the Pentagon’s media restrictions, saying the coverage threatens press freedom and hinders their potential to arrange impartial information gathering.

As well as, earlier this yr the Trump administration eliminated Reuters, The Related Press and Bloomberg Information from the everlasting “pool” of reporters protecting the president, though these retailers should still be included sporadically.

Reuters contributed to this report.