US Treasury denies press credentials to several journalists at G20 finance meeting
The US Treasury Department has refused to accredit individual journalists from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg for the G20 finance ministers' meeting in North Carolina. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the decision has nothing to do with viewpoint.
The US Treasury Department has declined to grant press credentials to certain reporters seeking to cover the Group of 20 finance ministers' meeting in Asheville, North Carolina. According to The New York Times, individual journalists from the Times itself, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg were denied access. The Treasury has offered no explanation for the decision.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Associated Press in a Sunday interview that the move "has nothing to do with point of view." Among those barred is the Times' Alan Rappeport, who has covered such gatherings and the Treasury Department since 2017. Notably, another Times reporter, Berlin bureau chief Jim Tankersley, was granted access.
In a statement, the Times called the exclusion "not just another disturbing effort by the administration to undermine independent journalism, but a blatant attempt to evade public scrutiny." The paper noted that with the war in Iran, sanctions, bond markets and inflation on the agenda, the meeting carries significant stakes for the global economy and the American public. Bloomberg News said the denial of access "undermines media freedom and public accountability." The Wall Street Journal declined to comment.
Background
The gathering, running from Saturday through Tuesday, is hosted by Bessent and brings together finance ministers, central bank governors and senior officials from the world's leading economies. This year's full G20 summit of heads of state is scheduled for December at Trump's golf club in Doral, Florida.
The episode comes amid escalating friction between the US press corps and the second Trump administration, playing out publicly and at times in court. Earlier this year, for instance, the Defense Department declared its press office a classified space off-limits to journalists, after the Pentagon demanded reporters accept government-imposed restrictions on their work — a move that prompted most news outlets to vacate the building last fall.
