Blog
White House bars media from Dalai Lama meeting
- By: ASNE staff
- On: 02/26/2014 09:51:38
- In: Freedom of the press
You probably have heard that on Friday, the White House denied independent press photographers access to President Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama in Washington, D.C. Citing no official reason for the restriction, the White House later in the day released a photo of the meeting taken by a White House photographer.
You probably have heard that on Friday, the White House denied independent press photographers access to President Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama in Washington, D.C. Citing no official reason for the restriction, the White House later in the day released a photo of the meeting taken by a White House photographer.
The Friday story by The Associated Press states that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the decision not to allow access was consistent with Obama's past meetings with the Buddhist monk.
The story also cites a joint statement by ASNE President David Boardman and APME President Debra Adams Simmons:
"When the president meets with a major world leader, the independent press should have at least limited photographic access to that event. In our previous meeting, the White House agreed to this principle. Yet, today, we were denied access to President Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama, while a government photographer took pictures and a visual press release was issued. Once again, this amounts to propaganda and is not open access by the people's press to the people's business. We are hopeful this will be the last such instance of such unprecedented restriction."