Journalist banned over gulf name change

The White House blocked a reporter from the Oval Office on Tuesday after demanding the news agency alter its style on the Gulf of Mexico.

An Associated Press journalist was banned from an Oval Office event because the news agency continues to refer to the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Gulf of America. Picture: AFP

The White House blocked an Associated Press reporter from an event in the Oval Office on Tuesday after demanding the news agency alter its style on the Gulf of Mexico, which Donald Trump has ordered renamed the Gulf of America.

The highly unusual ban, which Trump administration officials had threatened earlier on Tuesday unless the AP changed the style on the gulf, could have constitutional free-speech implications.

AP executive Julie Pace called the administration’s move unacceptable. “It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” she said. “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 AP stylebook is relied on by thousands of journalists and other writers globally.

Demands by a President that a news organisation comply with an order to change its content would seem to run counter to the First Amendment of the US constitution, which bars the government from impeding the freedom of the press.

Before his January 20 inauguration, Mr Trump announced plans to change the Gulf of Mexico’s name to the “Gulf of America” – and signed an executive order to do so as soon as he was in office. Mexico’s President responded sarcastically and others noted that the name change would probably not affect global usage.

Earlier this week, Google Maps began using “Gulf of America”, saying it had a “longstanding practice” of following the US government’s lead on such matters. The other leading online map provider, Apple Maps, was still using “Gulf of Mexico”.

The AP said last month that it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico. As a global news agency, the AP says it must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognisable to all audiences.

Mr Trump also decreed that the mountain in Alaska known as Mount McKinley and then by its Indigenous name, Denali, be shifted back to commemorating the 25th president. President Barack Obama had ordered it renamed Denali in 2015.

AP said last month it would use the official name change to Mount McKinley because the area lies solely in the US and Mr Trump has the authority to change federal geographical names within the country.

AP