Judge declines to immediately restore AP access to White House
Getty ImagesA US judge has declined a request by the Associated Press to immediately restore its access to presidential events after the Trump administration blocked the agency in a dispute over the term "Gulf of America".
US District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, declined to grant the news outlet's emergency motion, but set another hearing for the case for 20 March.
The news agency has refused to change its style from the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America", after President Donald Trump renamed it with an executive order.
The AP argues the ban is retaliatory and infringes on First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and the press.
The ban has meant that the AP - which hundreds of news outlets rely on - has been unable to access press events at the White House as well as Air Force One.
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Last week, the US President said that he planned to "keep them out" until they begin using the term "Gulf of America".
After the ruling on Monday, the White House said it stood by its decision to block access to the news agency.
"As we have said from the beginning, asking the President of the United States questions in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One is a privilege granted to journalists, not a legal right," the Trump administration said in a statement.
"We stand by our decision to hold the Fake News accountable for their lies, and President Trump will continue to grant an unprecedented level of access to the press."
Shortly after the judge's decision became public, the White House put up two large electric signs in the briefing room which say "Victory" and "Gulf of America".
The AP, meanwhile, said in a statement that it was looking forward to the next hearing where "we will continue to stand for the right of the press and the public to speak freely without government retaliation. This is a fundamental American freedom".
Soon after taking office in January, the Trump administration signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America", a move the White House said reflects the gulf's status as "an indelible part of America".
The AP said it would continue to use the term Gulf of Mexico, while acknowledging the Trump administration's efforts to rename it.
In response, the administration began clamping down on the AP's access to White House events covered by the "pool" of journalists that cover smaller events and report back to other media outlets.
On Monday, Judge McFadden said he declined to deny the request from the AP for emergency relief because he did not believe the publication was suffering "irreparable harm" from the ban, according to CNN. The judge said the AP could access the same information from notes that other White House pool members had gathered.
Still, during several points in the hearing, he called the ban "discriminatory" and problematic", CNN reported.
AP reporters still have access to the White House grounds.
The AP lawsuit specifically names three administration figures - Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich -as it seeks to regain access.
"The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government," the AP said in the lawsuit.
On a trip with the White House pool to Florida last week, the BBC witnessed an AP reporter and one of its photographers be told by an official that they were a "no go" for the trip after clearing security at Joint Base Andrews a short while before Air Force One was due to depart.
Over the course of the next several days, the AP team - which had travelled to Florida unilaterally - was repeatedly prevented from joining the pool of reporters covering Trump at his estate in Mar-a-Lago, as well as a trip to the Daytona 500 Nascar race.
Speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago on 18 February, Trump said that "we're going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it's the Gulf of America".
"We're very proud of this country," he said. "We want it to be the Gulf of America".
Last week, dozens of news organisations - including conservative outlets such as Fox and NewsMax - signed a letter organised by the White House Correspondents' Association in which they urged the White House to reconsider its stance on the AP.
