Trump's media bans 'deprive the public', press freedom groups argue

Press freedom groups are suing the Trump administration over its efforts to block mainstream US news outlets from covering the White House, according to court filings.The six plaintiffs, which include scholars, advocates and journalists, argue media bans issued by the White House violate the First Amendment of the US Constitution - a critical statute that provides broad protections for the press and freedom of speech.Their suit comes after CNN, Politico, and MSNOW brought a separate legal challenge over the White House's attempts to revoke or restrict their press access.The Knight First Amendment Institute and Yale Law School's Media and Information Access Clinic filed the legal case on the plaintiffs' behalf.The six plaintiffs have asked a New York federal court to declare the White House's selective media bans violate the First Amendment, and to block the administration from continuing to enforce it.In court filings, the plaintiffs allege they are no longer able to do their work without access to information delivered by the White House press.The White House policy, they claim, "deprives the public" of reporting, and forces journalists who cover Donald Trump "to account for the possibility that a critical or ill-advised word about the president may result in their access being summarily restricted or revoked".Such a ban has a "distorting effect" on coverage from the White House, the court filing argues.The BBC has asked the White House for comment.The lawsuit did not ask a judge to award financial damages, only to require the defendants to cover their legal fees if they win.Since Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, the White House has engaged in a contentious standoff with many longstanding US media outlets, which the president has frequently accused of publishing "fake news".Last month, it banned reporters from CNN, Politico, and MSNOW from the White House, leading several other media organisations to temporarily suspend their pooled coverage of the president in protest.The affected news outlets sued, arguing the White House was illegally discriminating against them because of the content of their coverage.A federal judge later ordered the White House to restore the credentials of the impacted journalists while their lawsuit plays out. The reporters later said they were allowed back into the White House complex.The White House has, however, continued to selectively bar journalists, which news organisations in the US argue violates their press freedom protections.CNN, for instance, has threatened to take further legal action in court as its reporters continue to be denied access aboard Air Force One to cover the president. And last week, the White House banned a correspondent from The Independent from covering the president's trip to the state of Iowa, after Trump berated the reporter from the UK news outlet during a press conference.In his second term, Trump has also moved to bring conservative bloggers, influencers and other "new media" figures into the press room, arguing it is necessary to provide diverse perspectives in White House coverage.In February, the White House announced it was taking control of the press pool - the small group of journalists that has access to the president on any given day - which for more than a century had been managed by the White House Correspondents' Association.The same month, the White House moved to bar Associated Press journalists from spaces where access is limited, such as the Oval Office or Air Force One, because the outlet used the term "Gulf of Mexico" rather than "Gulf of America".AP filed a lawsuit and the case remains ongoing.Trump last week confirmed he is considering moving the entire press corps from the White House grounds following reports he was contemplating the reconstruction of a swimming pool that sits underneath the James S Brady briefing room."I am thinking about moving the press, and putting them in a different location," he wrote on Truth Social. "I will use that location for very badly needed space."