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Recently Politico’s West Wing Playbook reported that over the past three months, 432 reporters have lost access to the White House.
This reduction constitutes a 31 percent drop in media coverage of the White House.
The new guidelines for accessing the White House have been met with criticism from both within and outside of the press corps.
The latest report came on Wednesday when it was announced that Simon Ateba, Today News Africa’s White House correspondent, had his “hard pass” revoked.
In May, new restrictions were implemented by the White House limiting journalists’ eligibility for hard passes which allow them more freedom to access and cover the President’s activities.
The Daily Signal further reported that now these reporters must obtain a “temporary day pass” subjecting them to increased scrutiny from the Secret Service if they are granted access at all.
According to Politico, since April 975 hard pass holders remain with those renewed or newly approved reflecting a mix of applications submitted since then.
With these stringent rules set in place by President Biden himself, applicants are required to fulfill specific criteria such as holding a full-time job with an accredited news outlet and living in Washington D.C., submitting themselves for Secret Service investigation as well as regularly covering and gaining access to White House events and briefings.
Additionally, according to Jean Pierre Karine during a press briefing, any interruption of proceedings could result in expulsion from future briefings regardless of any other credentials held by journalists attempting entry into such spaces.
Overall this decision has caused outrage among members of Congress as well as outside observers who see this move by Biden’s press team as an attempt at silencing critics and restricting media access around his activities in office thus far.
BREAKING: In "Warning Letter", @WhiteHouse Threatens to Silence Simon Ateba, suspend or revoke his hard pass https://t.co/nY6DRWnaMU via @todaynewsafrica pic.twitter.com/008mff4eNV
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) July 11, 2023
