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Trump's attacks on media test US press freedom rules

29 37
yesterday

On April 22, courts ruled in favor of the US-based broadcaster Voice of America's lawsuit against the White House, in a rebuke to President Donald Trump's targeting of the free press.

From gutting Voice of America (VOA), to barring the Associated Press (AP) from the Oval Office, to threatening to defund publicly-funded media like National Public Radio (NPR), the Trump administration and his allies have had the American press in their crosshairs.

Some of Trump's attacks on the press started even before he won the White House. Trump sued CBS before the 2024 presidential election for editing an interview with his rival Kamala Harris in way he deemed unfavorable. He also sued a newspaper in Iowa, the Des Moines Register and J. Ann Selzer, a pollster, for publishing a survey that showed Harris leading Trump in the presidential race in the state. Those cases are ongoing.

But some outlets are fighting back and scoring some wins.

A federal judge ordered the Trump government to restore VOA's funding and reinstate the global broadcaster's employees and contractors. More than 1,000 of them were suspended after the president signed an executive order dismantling VOA's parent company, the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

A court also sided with the AP in its lawsuit to get access restored after it was banned from the Oval Office over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America." President........

© Deutsche Welle