DOMINANT ANGLE
New Delhi notes the discrepancy between a federal order and its execution: just hours after Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the restoration of access for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, the White House again denied entry to journalists from two of these newsrooms.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
Federal Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the immediate restoration of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico's access on Thursday, through a temporary order valid for fourteen days.
- 02
The judge dismissed the administration's national security argument, ruling that "the record provides no factual support" for it, and noting that Trump had cited a "lack of sincerity and negativity".
- 03
Despite the order, the White House again denied entry to journalists from Politico and MS NOW on Thursday, their badges having already been confiscated on Saturday, September 19.
ANALYSIS
New Delhi, September 24, 2026. A US federal judge has ordered the White House to restore access to CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, but the Donald Trump administration did not comply on the same day, notes the Indian press. According to the Deccan Chronicle and the Times of India, US federal judge Timothy Kelly in Washington estimated, on Wednesday night, that the ban imposed by the president on Friday, September 18, was "probably unconstitutional". His order, a provisional measure valid for fourteen days pending the outcome of the trial, requires the administration to "immediately restore" the press badges of the three newsrooms, which were seized on Saturday, September 19.
The judge rejected the national security argument invoked by the administration: "the file provides no factual element" to support this thesis, he writes in his order, cited by the Deccan Chronicle. He recalls that Donald Trump had himself justified the withdrawal of accreditation due to the alleged "lack of sincerity and negativity" of the three newsrooms. On social media, the American president had accused CNN, MS NOW, and Politico of only "reporting fiction and lies", and lawyers from the Justice Department had later attempted to justify the exclusion on national security grounds.
The three media outlets had approached the federal court in Washington on Monday, September 21, to contest their exclusion. But on Thursday, September 24, just hours after Judge Kelly's decision, the White House again refused entry to journalists from Politico and MS NOW, reports the Times of India. Their accreditation, already confiscated on Saturday, was not returned to them despite the court order, and neither the White House nor the concerned newsrooms had responded to requests for comment at the time of publication, specify the two Indian newspapers.
For the Indian press, the episode is primarily a test of institutional strength between the federal judiciary and an executive that does not execute its decision: an order that appears unambiguous, yet had no visible effect on the morning of its publication, at the very door of the White House.
