Nigeria

Abuja, Tuesday, September 22, 2026. Nigeria's press is following hour by hour the media drama in Washington, where three editorial offices and five rival television stations found themselves, over the course of a weekend, on the same side of the barricade facing the White House. Punch Nigeria, Premium Times, Daily Post, and Nigerian Eye report, with Reuters dispatches to back them up, that CNN, MS NOW, and Politico filed a complaint on Monday with the federal court of the district of Columbia, after Donald Trump ordered on Friday that they be banned from the White House enclosure, accusing them of publishing "FICTION and LIES" about him, his administration, and the United States. On Saturday, their journalists were turned back and their accreditation confiscated; CNN also lost its turn in the presidential television pool.

But it's the response from the rival channels that is holding the attention of Nigeria's press. Premium Times devotes an entire article to the fact that ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox News announced on Monday, alongside CNN, that they would suspend their coverage of presidential pool events, an unusual gesture among normally rival media outlets. In a joint statement, the five channels write that "the public has a vital interest in receiving accurate and independent information about its government" and that "no administration should restrict a media outlet because it disputes its reports." The head of Fox News' Washington bureau, Bryan Boughton, specifies in an internal note that no replacement pool will be set up, with the rest of the coverage, including Congress and VIPs, continuing normally.

The White House, cited by Daily Post, responds that the First Amendment protects publication but does not guarantee a badge, a seat in the press room, or a place in the pool, recalling that the Obama administration had excluded Fox News from a series of Sunday interviews in 2009 and that the Biden administration had restricted access for more than 440 journalists. It claims that 92% of Trump's coverage would be negative, compared to 60% of coverage deemed positive for Biden during the same period. Trump himself, in the Oval Office, justified his decision by stating that he should not "let into the people's house" media outlets that he considers hostile. The hearing on the request for a temporary restraining order is expected on Wednesday in Washington.