WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department is preventing certain journalists from covering a finance meeting among the world’s most powerful countries, the latest example of how President Donald Trump’s administration has restricted media access.Individual reporters from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg were not granted credentials to the Group of 20 finance ministerial in Asheville, North Carolina, the Times reported.The Treasury has not explained the decision. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Associated Press in an interview Sunday that “it has nothing to do with point of view.”The reporters who’ve been denied access include the Times’ Alan Rappeport, who has been covering such meetings and the Treasury Department since 2017. However, another reporter for the Times, Berlin bureau chief Jim Tankersley, is allowed to attend.
The Times said in a statement that denying American journalists access to an event in the U.S. is “not just another disturbing effort by the administration to undermine independent journalism, but a blatant attempt to evade public scrutiny.” “With the war in Iran, sanctions, the bond markets, and inflation on the agenda for the G20 finance ministers, the stakes of this gathering are significant for the global economy and the American people,” the Times said. “Excluding specific reporters and entire news organizations is a disservice to the public and an assault on press freedoms that we strongly condemn.”
