CPJ, dozens of journalist groups call for Trump to restore AP access

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt takes a question during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C on February 25, 2025. (Photo: Reuters/Brian Snyder)

A coalition of journalism and press freedom organizations, including CPJ, expressed “deep concern” on February 25 at the White House’s decision to bar Associated Press (AP) reporters from access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and other White House pool events.

In a statement calling for the Trump administration to restore AP’s access, the groups said that the global wire service “provides essential reporting that is published by thousands of outlets across the United States and around the world, helping to keep millions informed on matters of national and international importance.”

The letter added that “barring AP effectively removes these media outlets’ ability to deliver the news to the groups they serve.”

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2024 deadliest year for journalists

Journalists and other mourners gather around the bodies of four Palestinian journalists and a media worker killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp on December 26, 2024. (Photo: AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)

More journalists were killed in 2024 than in any other year since the Committee to Protect Journalists began collecting data more than three decades ago. At least 124 journalists and media workers were killed last year, nearly two-thirds of them Palestinians killed by Israel.

“Today is the most dangerous time to be a journalist in CPJ’s history,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “The rise in journalist killings is part of a broader trend of muzzling the media globally. This is an issue that should worry us all—because censorship prevents us from addressing corruption and criminality, and from holding the powerful to account.”

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The Committee to Protect Journalists promotes press freedom worldwide.

We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.

Journalists Attacked

Myat Thu Tan

MURDERED

Myat Thu Tan, a contributor to the local news website Western News and correspondent for several independent Myanmar news outlets, was shot and killed on January 31, 2024, while in military custody in Mrauk-U in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

He was arrested on September 22, 2022, and held in pre-trial detention under a broad provision of the penal code that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of false news for critical posts he made on his Facebook page. Myat Thu Tan had not been tried or convicted at the time of his death.

The journalist’s body was found buried in a bomb shelter, with the bodies of six other political detainees, and showed signs of torture.

Myanmar’s military junta has cracked down on journalists and media outlets since seizing power in a February 2021 coup.

Learn more about Myat Thu Tan