Previously, credentialed professionals could access the White House site, which is just steps from the Oval Office
(FOLHAPRESS) – The government of United States President Donald Trump banned this Friday (31) journalists from accessing part of the White House press room without prior appointment, due, according to a statement, to the need to protect “sensitive information”.
Journalists accredited at the White House “are no longer allowed” to visit the section where the office of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is located, “without prior authorization by appointment,” communications director Steven Cheung said in a memo.
The National Security Council said the change was made because structural changes at the agency mean that White House communications officials now “routinely deal with sensitive material.”
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“In order to protect this material and maintain coordination between National Security Council staff and the White House communications team, members of the press are no longer authorized to access Room 140 without prior approval in the form of an appointment with an authorized member of the White House staff,” the memo details.
Previously, credentialed White House journalists could access the location, which is just steps from the Oval Office, with little notice to speak with Leavitt, Cheung and other senior officials.
The measure follows restrictions imposed in early October on journalists accredited by the Department of Defense, which led dozens of professionals to vacate their offices at the Pentagon and return their credentials.
Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has attacked press outlets, which he has branded illegal and corrupt. According to the Republican stated in March, media companies that criticize him “are political arms of the Democratic Party”.
At the beginning of this month, the news networks that refused to sign the new guidelines imposed on the Pentagon released a note in which they classified the government’s new moves as threats. “We will continue to cover the US Armed Forces as each of our organizations has done for many decades, defending the principles of a free and independent press”, said the note at that time.
In a press conference with the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, the president confirmed the department’s guidelines, justifying that journalists “walk around the White House talking to anyone who can breathe”.
