AP says reporter blocked from White House over ‘Gulf of Mexico’ policy

The Associated Press rebuked the White House after it said one of the outlet's reporters was barred from covering an executive order signing Tuesday afternoon.

The barring of the journalist, the AP said in a statement, was in connection with AP's refusal to "align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America."

"As a global news organization, The Associated Press informs billions of people around the world every day with factual, nonpartisan journalism," the AP said. "It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism."

The president over the weekend announced Feb. 9 would be the first “Gulf of America Day,” a move that came after an executive order that set in motion the process of changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico.

The president previously gave the Department of the Interior 30 days to take “all appropriate action” to make the change.

The AP provides a regularly updated style guide as a tool that is used by news organizations and journalists around the world on how to spell, abbreviate or refer to people, places and things in the news.

In a Jan. 23 guidance from the AP on Trump's executive order, the outlet said it would refer to the Gulf of Mexico "by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment," the outlet said in a statement Tuesday.

In a statement issued later on Tuesday, the White House Correspondents Association said it "stands with the AP" and called on the administration "to immediately change course.”

“In the relationship between the press and the Office of the President, coverage and standards are entirely in the purview of individual organizations," president Eugene Daniels said. “The White House cannot dictate how news organizations report the news, nor should it penalize working journalists because it is unhappy with their editors’ decisions. The move by the administration to bar a reporter from The Associated Press from an official event open to news coverage today is unacceptable."

The National Press Club also blasted the administration, saying “today’s action by the White House is a direct attack on press freedom. No administration gets to decide how journalists do their jobs. The role of a free press is not to serve as an extension of any administration.

Updated at 6:17 p.m. EST.

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