The Associated Press was shut out of an executive order signing Tuesday because of their refusal to call the body of water to the west of Florida the “Gulf of America.”
“It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” Julie Pace, the executive editor of AP, said in a statement. “Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.”
The White House informed AP on Tuesday that if the news agency did not start referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, they would be banned from accessing an event in the Oval Office. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In late January, AP said in a statement that President Donald Trump’s executive order to call it the Gulf of America “only carries authority” in the United States.
AP said they would continue to refer to the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico while also acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen for it.
“As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences,” AP said in the statement.
AP said there are other places they refer to by two names, like the Gulf of California, which is its name in the United States, while Mexico refers to it as the Sea of Cortez.
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However, after Trump signed an executive order to revert the name of North America’s tallest peak, Denali in Alaska, to Mount McKinley, AP followed along because Mount McKinley is only in the United States, and “Trump has the authority to change federal geographical names within the country.”