Melania Trump’s office has approved CNN credentials for an event in New York, despite President Donald Trump’s ban on the network’s access to the White House and presidential trip to the United Nations.
CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein said her request to cover the First Lady on the sidelines of the UN had been accepted. The event is expected to take place on Tuesday at the St Regis hotel in Manhattan.
“Interestingly, we do have one new data point, which is that my credential to cover an event with the First Lady, on the sidelines of the United Nations tomorrow, has been approved,” Klein said on Monday.
A source familiar with the matter said CNN had been credentialed for an announcement linked to Mrs Trump’s “Fostering the Future Together” initiative, which she is expected to discuss during her visit to New York.
The approval contrasts with the treatment of CNN by the White House, which last Friday barred the network, MS NOW and Politico from its premises over allegations of what Mr Trump described as false reporting.
Reporters from the affected organisations were turned away when they arrived for work the following day, with some press passes confiscated by Secret Service agents. CNN was also removed from the White House travelling press group assigned to cover the President’s UN trip.
Mr Trump announced the restrictions in a statement, saying: “I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico.”
He added: “Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report fiction and lies when they’re covering the President of the United States.”
On Monday, the President defended the decision against claims that it amounted to an attack on the free press. He said he was instead “instituting an assault on the fake news, some that has grown like cancer in our beloved United States of America”.
The dispute has also affected plans for television coverage of the UN visit. Fox News, CNN, CBS, NBC and ABC, which together form the main broadcast television pool, said they would not send a camera crew to cover Mr Trump after CNN was excluded from the presidential trip.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico said they intended to challenge the restrictions in court, arguing that the White House had revoked their journalists’ credentials without notice or due process because it objected to their reporting.
“Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference,” the organisations said.
US District Judge Timothy Kelly is presiding over the case. He was appointed by Mr Trump during his first term and previously ordered the White House to restore the credentials of CNN journalist Jim Acosta after they were withdrawn following a confrontation with the President in 2018.
