By Susan Heavey
WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (Reuters) – MS NOW, CNN and Politico said on Monday they were suing the Trump Administration to protect their First Amendment rights after President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would ban the news outlets from the White House’s building grounds.
The three news organizations said they had notified the government that they were filing their lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and could see emergency hearings in the case as soon as this week.
“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,” they wrote in a joint statement.
The lawsuit aims “to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” they added.
Representatives for the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump defended the ban in another social media post on Monday after the lawsuit was announced, calling the news media a security threat, without providing any evidence.
“The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS,” he wrote. “It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!”
The Trump administration has upended decades of tradition in dealings between the White House and press, denying the access many major news organizations have had to the president while elevating new media outlets seen as more sympathetic to the administration. He has also filed a number of lawsuits against news organizations.
Trump’s latest move comes as his fellow Republicans seek to defend their narrow majorities in Congress in the November midterm elections as polls show the public souring on Republicans and Trump’s own approval ratings stand near historic lows.
On Saturday, all three outlets said their journalists were turned away from the White House grounds and their press credentials confiscated, a day after Trump initially announced his ban in a social media post and threatened to block other outlets.
He later addressed what he called his “ban on the free press” with reporters at an event in the Oval Office and said there was no particular incident that provoked the move.
Asked what other news organizations could be targeted, Trump cited The New York Times and The Washington Post as “fake news” but said they had not been removed yet.
The Associated Press, the White House Correspondents’ Association and others have criticized Trump’s ban, citing the fundamental American right to free speech and calling for access to be immediately restored.
The Associated Press filed its own lawsuit after being barred along with Reuters last year from the group of reporters that cover the president’s daily movements.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington; additional reporting by Anusha Shahand Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru; Editing by Louise Heavens, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Susan Fenton)
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