Associated Press says that he was prohibited from entering the Oval office for using “Gulf of Mexico” instead of “US Gulf.”

CNN
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The Associated Press (AP) said that the White House prohibited its reporter .UU. ” (In English “Gulf of America”, as their inhabitants usually call the country).

The AP said in a statement that it was informed on Tuesday that if the news agency did not “align its editorial standards with the decree of President Donald Trump that renowned the Gulf of Mexico as the US Gulf, AP would be excluded of accessing an event in the Oval office. ”

That happened on Tuesday, when an AP reporter was forbidden to attend the signing of a decree in the Oval office that became a question and answer session with Trump and Elon Musk.

“It is alarming that Trump’s government punish AP for his independent journalism,” said AP Executive Editor Julie Pace, in a statement. “Limiting our access to the oval office based on the content of AP speech not only severely prevents public access to independent news, but clearly violates the first amendment.”

The AP Guide on the Trump order renamed the Gulf of Mexico establishes that the news service “will refer to it by its original name while recognizing the new name Trump has chosen.” AP said this is because the Gulf has been named after the Gulf of Mexico for “more than 400 years” and that other international countries and organizations do not have to recognize the name change.

That is not the case of Mount McKinley, whose name Trump changed his old name of Denali. Because the Alaska mountain area “is found only in the United States” and Trump had full authority to change the name, AP said it will use the name Monte McKinley.

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

The White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) described the action of the White House as “unacceptable.”

“The White House cannot dictate how news organizations report the news, nor should it penalize journalists in exercise because they are not satisfied with the decisions of their editors. The measure of the administration of prohibiting a reporter from The Associated Press attending an official event open to news coverage today is unacceptable, ”said the president of the WHCA, Eugene Daniels, in a statement.

Trump has a long history of denying access to the press to media reporters who do not like. During the campaign, the Trump team denied and revoked the credentials of several reporters for the electoral night due to critical coverage.

During his first term as president, Trump’s White House revoked the press pass of the then correspondent of the White House of CNN, Jim Acosta, after a contentious press conference. The White House then restored the pass after CNN filed a lawsuit.