Donald Trump is facing a lawsuit from three major US news organisations after the US President banned the broadcasters from the White House.
CNN, Politico, and MS NOW announced today that they are taking joint legal action against the Trump administration after being expelled from the White House last week.
President Trump revealed the ban on Friday, accusing the outlets of producing “fiction or lies” about his administration.
Journalists from all three organisations reported being turned away from the building on Saturday.
The outlets framed the dispute as a fundamental challenge to press freedom under the US Constitution’s First Amendment protections.
In a joint statement, the three organisations declared they were pursuing litigation “to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports”.
The statement added: “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.”
Mr Trump responded on Truth Social shortly afterwards, insisting the White House was not “instituting an assault on the Free Press” and maintaining that his target was “FAKE NEWS”.
The US Constitution’s First Amendment prohibits the government from curtailing press freedom, which courts have historically understood as barring content-based discrimination against media organisations.
When announcing the ban, Mr Trump did not cite any particular articles but later attributed the decision to “cumulative stories over the last few years”.
He also warned that additional outlets could face similar treatment, saying: “Others to come in terms of fake news? Well, you know, the New York Times is fake news, the Washington Post is fake news.”
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CNN, which is one of just five US television networks in the White House press pool, had been scheduled to provide live coverage of Mr Trump’s visit to the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday and Tuesday.
Its pool slot has instead gone unfilled, with the conservative broadcaster Real America’s Voice listed as “secondary” crew for the trip.
The press pool, which lets media organisations share coverage of presidential events to reduce costs and logistical demands, was overseen by the White House Correspondents’ Association for over a century before the administration took control in February.
That same month, Associated Press reporters and photographers were blocked from restricted areas, including the Oval Office and Air Force One, after the agency continued using “Gulf of Mexico” rather than “Gulf of America”.
AP launched legal proceedings which remain unresolved.
The Trump administration has also pursued lawsuits against several other news organisations, among them the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC.
Some of these cases have ended with outlets agreeing to multimillion-dollar settlements.
His action against the BBC continues.
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