The White House blocked an Associated Press reporter from an event in the Oval Office on Tuesday after demanding the news agency alter its style on the Gulf of Mexico, which President Trump has ordered renamed the Gulf of America. The reporter tried to enter the White House event as usual Tuesday afternoon and was turned away, AP executives said. The highly unusual ban, which Trump administration officials had threatened earlier Tuesday unless the AP changed the style on the Gulf, could have constitutional free-speech implications.
Julie Pace, senior vice president and executive editor of the AP, called the administration's move unacceptable. "It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism," Pace said in a statement. "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 Trump administration made no immediate announcements about the move, and there was no indication any other journalists were affected.
AP style is not only used by the agency. The AP Stylebook is relied on by thousands of journalists and other writers globally. Demands by a president that a news organization comply with an order to change its content would seem to run counter to the First Amendment, which bars the government from impeding the freedom of the press, the AP notes. The AP said last month, three days after Trump's inauguration, that it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico while noting Trump's decision to rename it as well. As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP says it must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.
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