Denial of Access

So far in 2019, at least 28 denial of access to government events that are traditionally open or attended by the press have been tracked

Total cases	42

Colorado newspaper denied access to cover horse roundup

May 2, 2019

Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado denied the press access to cover a horse roundup and removal, a process that …

Baltimore court denies reporters access to courtroom audio recordings

May 7, 2019

The Baltimore City Circuit Court released an order dated April 24, 2019 that denies reporters the ability to obtain courtroom …

Tennessee Highway Patrol blocks reporters from covering protest, threaten with arrest

April 19, 2019

The Tennessee Highway Patrol threatened several reporters with arrest and blocked them from continuing reporting while they were covering a …

Judge limits media access to evidence in Minnesota police shooting trial

April 4, 2019

The judge presiding over the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor ruled on March 29 that media …

Department of State bars press pool from briefing call, allowing only “faith-based media”

March 25, 2019

The State Department barred the department’s press corps from a briefing call with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on March …

Ohio political reporter removed from Democratic Party mailing list, reinstated by chair

May 9, 2019

Cleveland political reporter Seth Richardson was removed from the Ohio Democratic Party press release mailing list by staff in March 2019. Richardson posted a thread on Twitter that he had apparently been “frozen out” from covering the Ohio Democratic Party, and suggested he may have been removed from the press distribution list in response to his reporting.

White House bars four print reporters from covering dinner between U.S., North Korea leaders

March 4, 2019

One day into President Trump’s diplomatic trip to Vietnam, the White House banned four U.S. journalists traveling in the press …

Unprecedented criminal complaint filed for violations of the Georgia Open Records Act

February 26, 2019

The Georgia state attorney general filed the first-ever criminal complaint in connection with the Georgia Open Records Act on Feb. …

More Incidents

How we track Denials Of Access

Denial of access to government events that are traditionally open or attended by the press and where the denial of access either deprives the public of significant information, appears to be retaliatory, or is done without meaningful justification. Concrete changes in policy or practice to restrict or deny access may also be included in this category.

Denial of access to individuals in some cases, such as where the available space limits the number of journalists allowed to attend or where individuals arguing for access do not meet reasonable standards for credentials, can be seen as meaningful justifications and will not be included.