News outlets win a round against Trump’s press ban — but the fight is far from over

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News outlets and press freedom advocates are cheering the latest court ruling against President Donald Trump’s press ban, while cautioning that he will keep trying to punish news coverage he dislikes.

CNN chairman and editor-in-chief Mark Thompson said news outlets have to be “forever vigilant” about First Amendment rights.

The Justice Department plans to appeal the latest ruling, and its antitrust division is also probing the five major TV networks over how the White House TV pool operates.

With all that in mind, Thompson said it’s necessary to “be prepared to fight and to go on fighting.”

“I mean, this topic is one we’re never going to back down from,” he said. “And no matter how many court cases, investigations, court appearances and all the expense that that entails, we will fight this one to the end.”

CNN chief reacts to judge’s ruling on Trump press ban

On Tuesday night, US District Judge Timothy P. Kelly ruled that Trump’s mid-September ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House likely violated the First Amendment.

Kelly issued a preliminary injunction protecting journalists’ access to the White House while the lawsuit continues.

“It’s not the end of the matter, I mean, sooner or later there may be a trial,” Thompson said in an interview on CNN. “But I think it’s a really big boost — the judge essentially saying our complaint is likely to succeed” at trial.

Thompson called it “a vote of confidence in free speech” and the public’s right “to hear their political leader held to account by the press.”

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press president Bruce D. Brown noted that the ruling “protects not only CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, but all the other holders of White House passes who continued to work under the threat of retaliation.”

But other tests involving White House access are likely. In a recent interview with TIME, Trump complained about The New York Times and said “maybe they’ll be next” to be banned.

And even with a temporary restraining order in place earlier this month, the White House blocked CNN from boarding Air Force One, apparently citing ongoing litigation with The Associated Press.

“We welcome Judge Kelly’s order, but we are concerned that the White House continues to ban some news outlets from the White House press pool, where President Trump speaks the most with reporters,” Katie Fallow, the deputy litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute, said in a statement.

“We are also concerned that the White House is still threatening to ban other journalists from the White House because he disagrees with their reporting,” Fallow added. “That practice is unconstitutional, and harms both the press and the public, which relies on journalists to report independently on the president and his administration.”

Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at Free Press, said in a Wednesday statement Kelly’s ruling “affirms that presidential cherry-picking of newsroom access violates core First Amendment principles. A powerful district court ruling citing strong First Amendment precedent isn’t the end, however.”

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Trump has escalated his anti-media rhetoric in recent months, sometimes even claiming that responsible reporting is “treasonous.”

The Justice Department, the FCC and other agencies have followed his lead and taken action against individual journalists and news outlets in ways that have been widely denounced by First Amendment groups.

And Trump has trumpeted his administration’s pressure campaign against the press. On Tuesday night, during a rally in Alaska, he pointed to FCC chairman Brendan Carr and quipped that Carr is “the most feared man in government.”

Carr has pursued or threatened multiple investigations into broadcasters, including a new probe of ABC News over a since-corrected report about business investments involving Trump’s sons. His agency is currently pursuing a highly unusual challenge of ABC’s local station licenses, a move Disney is challenging in court as unconstitutional retaliation.

Numerous former FCC officials of both parties have decried the “ weaponization ” of the FCC under Carr.

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新闻媒体和新闻自由倡导者们对法院最新驳回唐纳德·特朗普总统新闻禁令的裁决表示欢呼，同时也警告说，他会继续试图惩罚他不喜欢的新闻报道。

CNN董事长兼总编辑马克·汤普森表示，新闻媒体必须“时刻警惕”宪法第一修正案赋予的权利。

司法部计划对最新裁决提出上诉，其反垄断部门也在调查五大电视网如何运作白宫电视转播团队。

考虑到所有这些因素，汤普森表示，必须“做好战斗准备，并继续战斗下去”。

“我的意思是，在这个问题上，我们绝不退缩，”他说。“无论需要打多少官司、进行多少调查、出庭多少次，以及由此产生的所有费用，我们都会抗争到底。”

CNN总裁就法官对特朗普新闻禁令的裁决作出回应

周二晚，美国地区法官蒂莫西·P·凯利裁定，特朗普在9月中旬禁止CNN、MS NOW和Politico进入白宫的禁令可能违反了宪法第一修正案。

凯利发布了一项初步禁令，在诉讼进行期间保护记者进入白宫的权利。

汤普森在接受CNN采访时表示：“事情还没结束，我的意思是，迟早可能会开庭审理。但我认为这是一个非常大的鼓舞——法官基本上是在说我们的诉讼很可能在审判中胜诉。”

汤普森称之为“对言论自由的信任投票”，以及公众“让媒体追究其政治领导人责任”的权利。

新闻自由记者委员会主席布鲁斯·D·布朗指出，该裁决“不仅保护了 CNN、MS NOW 和 Politico，还保护了所有其他持有白宫通行证并在报复威胁下继续工作的记者”。

但其他涉及白宫准入的测试可能还会进行。在最近接受《时代》杂志采访时，特朗普抱怨了《纽约时报》，并表示“也许他们也会”被禁。

尽管本月初白宫发布了临时限制令，但白宫仍阻止 CNN 登上空军一号，显然是援引了与美联社正在进行的诉讼。

“我们欢迎凯利法官的命令，但我们担心白宫继续禁止一些新闻媒体进入白宫记者团，而特朗普总统在记者团中与记者交流最多，”奈特第一修正案研究所副诉讼主任凯蒂·法洛在一份声明中说。

“我们还担心，白宫仍在威胁要禁止其他记者进入白宫，因为他不同意他们的报道，”法洛补充道。“这种做法违宪，损害了新闻界和公众的利益，公众依赖记者对总统及其政府进行独立报道。”

自由媒体高级律师诺拉·贝纳维德斯周三在一份声明中表示，凯利的裁决“确认了总统随意选择新闻编辑室访问权限违反了第一修正案的核心原则。然而，一项援引强有力的第一修正案先例的强有力的地区法院裁决并非最终结果。”

Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images

近几个月来，特朗普加大了反媒体言论的力度，有时甚至声称负责任的报道是“叛国行为”。

司法部、联邦通信委员会和其他机构都效仿他的做法，对个别记者和新闻媒体采取了行动，这些行动受到了宪法第一修正案团体的广泛谴责。

特朗普大肆宣扬其政府对媒体的施压行动。周二晚，在阿拉斯加的一次集会上，他指着联邦通信委员会主席布伦丹·卡尔，讽刺地说卡尔是“政府里最令人恐惧的人”。

卡尔曾多次对广播公司展开或威胁展开调查，其中包括对美国广播公司（ABC）新闻频道的一项新调查，该调查源于一篇后来更正的关于特朗普之子商业投资的报道。目前，他的机构正在对ABC的地方电视台牌照发起一项极为罕见的挑战，迪士尼已就此提起诉讼，认为这是违宪的报复行为。

许多来自两党的FCC前官员都谴责卡尔领导下的FCC“武器化”。