Photo: getty images
On Friday, a journalist from the Russian state-run TASS news agency was able to enter the White House during a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy. At the same time, representatives of leading Western media outlets such as the Associated Press and Reuters were denied access. This was reported by CNN.
A White House spokesperson said that the TASS journalist did not have the appropriate permission to be present during the meeting.
“TASS was not on the list of approved press representatives,” the Trump administration spokesperson said. According to him, when the presence of the Russian journalist was discovered, he was immediately escorted out of the room by the administration’s press secretary.
The incident gains even more resonance as the White House has recently changed the procedure for selecting journalists for press events, excluding the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) from the process. Now, it is the presidential administration that decides which media can access key meetings and briefings.
This incident raised significant questions about the transparency of the new White House policy, as despite the claimed tightening of controls, a journalist from a Russian-funded agency was able to enter one of the most secure buildings in the United States without hindrance. Instead, representatives of AP and Reuters, who adhere to journalistic standards and have a long history of cooperation with the White House, were not allowed to cover the event.
Some experts believe that this incident may have a political background and indicates the Trump administration’s ambiguous priorities in relations with the Russian media. At the same time, others point out that it could be a simple miscalculation in the new system of selecting journalists.
So far, the White House has not provided detailed comments on how the Russian journalist gained access to the closed meeting and what measures will be taken to prevent similar situations in the future.
