The U.S. Treasury Department denied credentials to journalists from The New York Times, Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal for this week’s Group of 20 finance meeting in North Carolina.
The Treasury has not provided a specific explanation for excluding the reporters from the gathering in Asheville, the Associated Press reported Monday. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is hosting the meeting, told the AP that the decisions had “nothing to do with point of view.”
The department said nearly 300 journalists from approximately a dozen countries were approved to cover the event. In a statement reported by AFP, Treasury defended its broader access arrangements but did not explain why the individual applications were rejected.
“Members of the media will have a high level of access to policymakers throughout the event, and with that access comes a responsibility to report factual information consistent with established journalistic standards,” a spokesperson said, adding that coverage should not prioritize “clicks, engagement or sensationalism.”
Among those denied access was Times reporter Alan Rappeport, who has covered Treasury and similar international meetings since 2017. The newspaper’s Berlin bureau chief, Jim Tankersley, was granted entry.
The Times called the decision a “blatant attempt to evade public scrutiny,” noting that the meeting’s agenda includes the war in Iran, sanctions, bond markets and inflation.
Bloomberg said Treasury rejected accreditation requests from multiple staffers, including reporters based in the United States, France, Italy, Japan and China. The outlet said the exclusion undermined media freedom and public accountability. The Journal declined to comment to the AP.
The finance ministers and central bank governors meeting began Monday and runs through Tuesday. G20 deputies also met in Asheville over the weekend, according to the Treasury’s official schedule.
The dispute is the latest clash between the Trump administration and major news organizations over press access. The Pentagon imposed restrictions on reporters’ work last fall, prompting most outlets to leave their workspaces. Earlier this year, the department declared its press office a classified area inaccessible to journalists.
The AP has also sued the administration over restrictions on its White House press pool access after the outlet continued using Gulf of Mexico instead of President Donald Trump’s preferred “Gulf of America.”
