Order restores journalists access to White House spaces while the news agency\u2019s lawsuit moves forward<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A US judge on Tuesday ordered the White House to restore full access to the Associated Press<\/a> to presidential events, after the news agency was punished for its decision to continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico in its coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The order from the US district judge Trevor McFadden, an appointee of Donald Trump<\/a>, requires the White House to allow the AP\u2019s journalists to access the Oval Office, Air Force One and events held at the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The White House \u201csharply curtailed\u201d the AP\u2019s access to media events with the US president after he renamed the Gulf of Mexico the \u201cGulf of America\u201d and the news agency did not follow suit, McFadden wrote in a 41-page decision<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnder the First Amendment, if the government opens its doors to some journalists \u2013 be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere \u2013 it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints,\u201d McFadden wrote. \u201cThe Constitution requires no less.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The AP sued three senior Trump aides in February, alleging the restrictions <\/strong>violated the US constitution\u2019s first amendment protections against government abridgment of speech by trying to dictate the language they used in reporting the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lawyers for the Trump administration<\/a> have argued that the AP does not have a right to what the White House has called \u201cspecial access\u201d to the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the first day of his second administration, Trump signed an executive order<\/a> directing the US interior department to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The AP said it would continue to use the gulf\u2019s long-established name in stories while acknowledging Trump\u2019s efforts to change it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor anyone who thinks The Associated Press\u2019 lawsuit against President Trump\u2019s White House is about the name of a body of water, think bigger,\u201d Julie Pace, the AP\u2019s executive editor, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.\u2002<\/a>\u201cIt\u2019s really about whether the government can control what you say.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n