The intricacies of press credentials, at the White House and beyond

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What makes a journalist a journalist? In the United States, by foundational principle, anyone who wants to report and publish the news can do it without official permission.

On the White House beat, however, a reporter needs to show an ID badge, linked to a security code, for consistent, streamlined access to the grounds. Saturday morning, as CNN reporter Betsy Klein tried to enter the White House through the usual security checkpoint at the Northwest Gate, the system told her there was an error. A Secret Service member asked to see her badge and confiscated it, returning only the lanyard and clear plastic case.

Her press credentials, she was told, were deactivated.

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The day before, President Donald Trump had announced that he was banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. His way of making that happen, it turned out, was by shutting off their credentials.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico are suing the Trump administration, alleging that the ban on their journalists violates the First Amendment and the Constitution’s due process protections. The position of being a credentialed journalist is not something that can be summarily and unilaterally revoked, according to binding legal precedent.

Early Thursday morning, a federal judge ordered that the Trump administration temporarily reinstate the reporters’ White House access while each side continues to make its case. CNN, MS NOW and Politico were eventually allowed back in after being denied earlier in the day.

EDITOR’S NOTE: CNN’s “Word of the Week” brings you the meaning behind the words in the news.

Illustration by Alberto Mier/CNN

A journalistic credential, in the US, does not inherently make a person a journalist. Where doctors or lawyers need to be properly educated and authorized by overseeing bodies, journalists operate with no formally required qualifications.

But journalists do need to go places and see things, including getting access to spaces and events that aren’t open to the general public. So governments, law enforcement agencies and private entities have systems to provide credentials to identify people who are gathering the news.

This means the independent press and the authorities coming to an agreement about who is engaged in newsgathering. Who gives out a press pass? Who gets one? And on what grounds can they be denied or revoked?

These questions can produce fundamental conflicts around reporting. “The same public offices responsible for managing public perception are also empowered to decide which journalists are granted access, often without external review or oversight,” Nicole Ligon, an assistant professor of law at Campbell University, wrote in a law review article on press credentialing published earlier this year.

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“Credential,” derived from the Latin root “credere” meaning to believe, was first recorded in 1433 as part of the term “letter credential,” a document that served as a diplomatic recommendation or introduction. By the 19th century, it had also evolved into a verb to describe the act of providing proof of one’s identity or qualifications.

At the White House, that proof comes in the form of plastic ID badges also known as “hard passes.” Beginning in the early 20th century, the White House Press Office has administered these credentials to journalists who regularly cover the White House, allowing them ready and regular access to the grounds. Criteria for obtaining credentials have varied over the years. President Joe Biden’s administration tightened the rules around hard passes in 2023, and media reporter Justin Baragona wrote at the time that the move would likely curb access for fringe journalists.

The White House passes occupy an upper tier in a hierarchy of access to official Washington, DC. Journalists applying for one have to undergo a background check, provide a residential or professional address in the Washington, DC, area and demonstrate that they regularly cover the White House; a 2023 DC district court ruling indicated that they must also be accredited by the Supreme Court or the congressional press galleries.

Those congressional passes are issued through the Senate Press Galleries by committees of working journalists and provide reporters who cover the House and Senate unaccompanied access to the US Capitol complex. Applicants from daily news organizations and wire services must establish that they are full-time paid employees who require regular access to the Capitol grounds; those from magazines or other non-daily publications must submit a letter on their organization’s letterhead — a credential about credentialing — signed by a bureau chief or managing editor, indicating full-time employment and explaining what they need to cover.

Other governments and agencies have their own processes, with their own proofs of journalistic status. The New York City Mayor’s Office issues press cards that allow local journalists to cross police barriers or other city-imposed restrictions during emergency and breaking news events. To apply for the city’s standard press card, applicants must submit at least six examples of work involving in-person coverage, published in the last two years. In the city of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Police Department is responsible for issuing media credentials to cover news behind police and fire lines.

For decades, governments have generally granted journalists access to official events and spaces, regardless of the tenor of their coverage. But during his first and second terms in office, Trump has attempted to shut out certain reporters and news organizations.

In 2025, after Associated Press said it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico and not Trump’s moniker Gulf of America, administration officials made changes to the daily pool rotation that prevented some AP reporters from accessing presidential events in the Oval Office and Air Force One. The AP sued over the move, and a lower court ruled that the outlet had shown the administration had improperly retaliated against it. Litigation is ongoing. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also repeatedly attempted to restrict journalists’ access to the Pentagon based on their reporting — in March, a judge deemed the policy unlawful.

During Trump’s first term, the White House revoked the credentials of Jim Acosta, then CNN’s chief White House correspondent. CNN sued, and a federal judge ordered the administration to restore his press pass.

“When the people who are deciding who get press credentials are the very people that the journalists are reporting on, that seems to me a real conflict,” Ligon said.

How might journalistic access be protected against political influence or interference? Press credentials often function like professional licenses — revoking one, Ligon argued in the article, can interfere with a journalist’s ability to do their job. Doctors, lawyers and taxi cab drivers facing the revocation of their licenses are entitled to due process. Journalists, she said, should be too.

In addition to licensing boards and oversight bodies, Ligon points to the model of congressional press galleries as another possible safeguard. As with the Senate Press Galleries, journalists covering Canada’s parliament are credentialed independently from parliamentary leadership or the prime minister’s office, by a group of working journalists.

The definition of who counts as a journalist is always evolving. In recent years, mass layoffs at established news organizations have led to more independent journalists and freelancers, while technological shifts have blurred the lines between journalists and bloggers and content creators.

In previous eras, working for an established news organization might have improved a journalist’s odds of obtaining a press credential. A 2015 survey by researchers at Harvard University found that 14% of employees at media organizations had been denied credentials at least once, while 32% of freelancers and 27% of independent journalists had been denied. But in recent years, governments and political institutions have broadened the scope of who merits a credential. During the 2024 Democratic National Convention, the DNC issued credentials to more than 200 digital content creators.

And as the Trump administration has attempted to shut out mainstream news organizations from the White House briefing room, it has welcomed nontraditional and MAGA-friendly organizations. During the first White House briefing of Trump’s second term, then-press secretary Karoline Leavitt encouraged podcasters and social media influencers to apply for credentials.

“The Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media who are seated in this room,” she said, to the media seated in the room.

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什么使一个人成为记者？在美国，根据基本原则，任何想报道和发布新闻的人都可以无需官方许可这样做。

然而，在白宫进行报道时，记者需要出示与安全码关联的身份识别徽章，才能顺利、便捷地进入白宫区域。周六上午，当CNN记者贝齐·克莱恩试图通过西北门的常规安检进入白宫时，系统提示出现错误。一名特勤局人员要求查看她的徽章，并没收了徽章，只归还了挂绳和透明塑料套。

她被告知，她的记者证已被停用。

格雷姆·斯隆/盖蒂图片社

前一天，唐纳德·特朗普总统宣布禁止CNN、MS NOW和Politico进入白宫。结果证明，他实现这一目标的方式是取消了他们的媒体通行证。

CNN、MS NOW 和 Politico 正在起诉特朗普政府，指控其对旗下记者的禁令违反了宪法第一修正案和正当程序条款。根据具有约束力的法律先例，记者的资格认证不能被随意单方面撤销。

周四清晨，一位联邦法官下令，在双方继续陈述各自立场期间，特朗普政府暂时恢复记者进入白宫的权限。此前被拒绝进入的CNN、MS NOW和Politico最终获准重新进入。

编者按：CNN的“每周一词”栏目为您解读新闻中出现的词语背后的含义。

插图：Alberto Mier/CNN

在美国，拥有新闻从业资格证书并不意味着就一定是记者。医生或律师需要接受正规教育并获得监管机构的授权，而记者则无需任何正式的资格认证。

但记者确实需要前往各地，亲眼目睹各种事件，包括进入不对公众开放的场所和参加不对外开放的活动。因此，政府、执法机构和私营企业都建立了相应的系统，为新闻采集人员发放证件，以识别他们的身份。

这意味着独立媒体和当局需要就谁可以从事新闻采集工作达成一致。谁发放记者证？谁可以获得记者证？以及在什么情况下可以拒绝发放或吊销记者证？

这些问题可能会在新闻报道方面引发根本性的冲突。坎贝尔大学法学院助理教授妮可·利根在今年早些时候发表的一篇关于记者证件发放的法律评论文章中写道：“负责管理公众舆论的公共机构也被赋予了决定哪些记者可以获得采访权限的权力，而且往往缺乏外部审查或监督。”

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“Credential”（凭证）一词源于拉丁语词根“credere”，意为“相信”，最早记录于1433年，是“letter credential”（信函凭证）一词的一部分，指的是一种用作外交推荐或介绍的文件。到了19世纪，它也演变为一个动词，用来描述提供身份或资格证明的行为。

在白宫，这种身份证明以塑料身份徽章的形式出现，也被称为“通行证”。自20世纪初以来，白宫新闻办公室一直向定期报道白宫的记者发放这种证件，允许他们随时进入白宫。多年来，获得通行证的标准有所变化。2023年，乔·拜登政府收紧了通行证的相关规定，媒体记者贾斯汀·巴拉戈纳当时撰文指出，此举可能会限制边缘记者进入白宫。

白宫通行证在进入华盛顿特区的官方权限等级中处于最高级别。申请白宫通行证的记者必须接受背景调查，提供位于华盛顿特区的居住地址或工作地址，并证明他们定期报道白宫；20​​23 年华盛顿特区地方法院的一项裁决表明，他们还必须获得最高法院或国会新闻发布会的认证。

这些国会通行证由参议院新闻记者委员会通过参议院新闻发布厅发放，允许报道众议院和参议院的记者单独进入美国国会大厦。来自日报和通讯社的申请人必须证明自己是全职带薪员工，需要定期进入国会大厦；来自杂志或其他非日报出版物的申请人必须提交一份由其所在机构抬头信纸打印的信函——一份关于资格认证的证明——该信函需由分社社长或执行主编签署，说明其全职工作情况并解释其报道需求。

其他政府和机构都有各自的流程，以及各自的记者身份证明。纽约市长办公室发放记者证，允许当地记者在紧急情况和突发新闻事件发生时穿越警方设置的警戒线或其他市政府限制。申请纽约市标准记者证，申请人必须提交至少六篇过去两年内发表的现场报道作品。在洛杉矶市，洛杉矶警察局负责发放媒体证件，允许记者在警戒线和消防线后方进行新闻报道。

几十年来，各国政府通常都会允许记者进入官方活动和场所，无论他们的报道风格如何。但在特朗普的第一任期和第二任期内，他却试图将某些记者和新闻机构拒之门外。

2025年，美联社表示将继续使用“墨西哥湾”而非特朗普的“美国湾”这一名称后，政府官员修改了每日记者轮换制度，导致部分美联社记者无法进入椭圆形办公室和空军一号报道总统活动。美联社就此提起诉讼，下级法院裁定美联社已证明政府对其进行了不当报复。诉讼仍在进行中。国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯也曾多次试图以记者报道为由限制他们进入五角大楼——今年3月，一名法官裁定该政策违法。

在特朗普的第一任期内，白宫吊销了时任CNN首席白宫记者吉姆·阿科斯塔的记者证。CNN提起诉讼，一位联邦法官下令政府恢复他的记者证。

“当决定谁能获得记者证的人正是记者们正在报道的对象时，这在我看来就是一个真正的利益冲突，”利贡说道。

如何保护新闻工作者的采访权利免受政治影响或干预？记者证通常类似于职业执照——正如利贡在文章中所述，吊销记者证可能会影响记者履行职责的能力。医生、律师和出租车司机在面临吊销执照时享有正当程序权利。她认为，记者也应享有同样的权利。

除了执照委员会和监督机构之外，利贡还指出国会新闻记者席模式是另一种可能的保障措施。与参议院新闻记者席一样，报道加拿大议会的记者由一群从业记者独立于议会领导层或总理办公室进行资格认证。

记者的定义一直在不断演变。近年来，老牌新闻机构的大规模裁员催生了更多独立记者和自由撰稿人，而技术变革也模糊了记者、博主和内容创作者之间的界限。

在过去，为一家知名新闻机构工作或许能提高记者获得记者证的几率。哈佛大学研究人员2015年的一项调查发现，14%的媒体机构员工至少被拒绝过一次记者证申请，而自由撰稿人和独立记者被拒绝的几率分别为32%和27%。但近年来，各国政府和政治机构扩大了记者证的发放范围。在2024年民主党全国代表大会期间，民主党全国委员会（DNC）向200多名数字内容创作者发放了记者证。

特朗普政府试图将主流新闻机构拒之门外，却对非传统媒体和支持“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）的组织表示欢迎。在特朗普第二任期的首次白宫新闻发布会上，时任新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特鼓励播客主播和社交媒体影响者申请入场证。

她对在场的媒体记者说：“特朗普白宫将与所有媒体和人士对话，而不仅仅是坐在这个房间里的传统媒体。”

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