Wednesday 12 / February / 2025
Washington DC: An Associated Press reporter was denied entry by the White House to an event in the Oval Office on Tuesday over the news agency's decision to continue referring to the "Gulf of Mexico" despite President Donald Trump's orders that it be renamed the "Gulf of America."
The White House refused to let the reporter, whose identity AP has not revealed, enter unless the news agency changed its style of referring to the Gulf.
"It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism," AP Executive Editor Julie Pace said, adding that limiting access violated the First Amendment of the US Constitution guaranteeing freedom of the press.
In January, Trump signed an executive order directing the Interior Secretary to change the Gulf of Mexico's name to the "Gulf of America."
In its stylebook, AP says that the Gulf has carried the name "Gulf of Mexico" for more than 400 years and, as a global news agency, it will refer to it by its original name while noting the new name Trump has chosen.
This week, both Google and Apple Maps switched to using "Gulf of America"for user in the United States. Google said it had a "longstanding practice" of following the US government's lead on such matters.
The White House Correspondents' Association protested the Trump administration's decision on Tuesday. The surprising ban could have implications for free speech in the United States.
"The move by the administration to bar a reporter from the Associated Press from an official event open to news coverage today is unacceptable," said Eugene Daniels, president of the association.
"The White House cannot dictate how news organisations report the news, nor should it penalize working journalists because it is unhappy with their editors' decisions," Daniels said on Tuesday in a statement posted on X.
There were no new comments by the Trump administration about the entry ban of the AP reporter and there were no reports of other journalists being barred from the White House.
The Associated Press was founded in 1846 and provides news in a variety of formats to publications around the world.
