WASHINGTON — The White House barred two CNN journalists on Thursday evening from covering Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s arrival at the White House for a state dinner despite a court ruling that their access to the grounds must be restored. MS NOW journalists were also denied access.A federal judge said in an overnight ruling that the White House ban on three outlets — CNN and MS NOW and Politico — was likely unconstitutional and that the administration must allow them access, for now. Trump barred them last week, accusing them of “fake news”.Journalists with the three outlets were allowed back in on Thursday morning.Then in the evening, a CNN reporter and a producer and an MS NOW reporter said that they were denied entry to cover the guests arriving for a state dinner for the Chinese leader.The outlets said they had properly submitted their reporters’ names for credentials to cover the arrivals.CNN said that about an hour before Xi was scheduled to arrive, the White House said it could cover the event only with a photojournalist and audio technician, but not a team that included a reporter and producer.MS NOW White House reporter Laura Barron-Lopez said she was told by White House staff that she could not be let in, and to contact the White House communications director.A White House communications account posted on X that “contrary to what the Fake News wants you to believe, they don’t just get to have free rein into every part of the White House, every event, and every press call”.The incident was the latest in a series of events on Thursday surrounding the ban on some media outlets at the White House.Despite the overnight ruling, CNN, Politico and MS NOW all reported being denied entry to the White House on Thursday morning, prompting a request for an emergency court hearing.In response, the director of White House Operations said in a court filing that the press passes and confiscated badges had been restored by 09:45 local time (13:45 GMT).Shortly afterwards, all three outlets said they were allowed back in.However, networks including Fox News, NBC, CBS and ABC, which pulled out in solidarity, have yet to confirm they will resume broadcast coverage from the White House.The chaotic standoff limited some TV coverage as Trump welcomed Xi to the White House ahead of a state dinner.In his ruling, Judge Timothy Kelly said the ban on the outlets should be temporarily lifted because it “likely violated their constitutional due process rights”.He cast doubt on White House claims that the ban was justified in part on national security grounds, pointing out the president made no mention of this in his initial announcement.”The record lacks factual support for defendants’ contention that the revocation of plaintiffs’ hard passes will in fact protect national security,” Kelly wrote.Judge Kelly ruled CNN, Politico and MS NOW were “likely to succeed” in showing the White House had not exercised “adequate due process” in the ban.He ordered the immediate return of the outlets’ press passes and a halt to enforcement of the ban for 14 days.Trump first announced last Friday he was barring the three outlets from the White House, accusing them of writing “fiction or lies” about his administration.By Saturday morning, each outlet reported that they were denied entry to the White House grounds and that their press badges were confiscated.All three outlets accused the Trump administration of violating their constitutional rights.In a joint statement on Monday, they said they were pursuing legal action to “defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports”.More than 50 media organisations across the ideological spectrum filed an amicus brief in support of the lawsuit, including Fox News, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
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