US Treasury bars some reporters from G-20 finance meeting — The Straits Times

RESOLVING THE LEDGER

The US Department of the Treasury has not granted credentials to individual reporters for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News to cover the G-20 event.

Listen Summarise The US Treasury denied credentials to reporters from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg News for the upcoming G-20 finance meeting in North Carolina. The Times criticised the decision as an attempt to avoid public scrutiny amid important global economic issues like war, sanctions, and inflation. The Treasury said nearly 300 journalists will attend and emphasised responsible reporting, while the Times continues to challenge the exclusion legally. AI generated

NEW YORK - When leaders from the world’s leading rich and developing nations gather next week for the Group of 20 (G-20) finance meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, they will be joined by throngs of journalists from newsrooms around the globe.

Missing from among them, though, will be several reporters from three of the largest newsrooms in the United States.

The US Department of the Treasury has not granted credentials to individual reporters for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News to cover the event, which will draw finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s biggest economies.

Alan Rappeport, an economic policy reporter who reports on the Treasury Department for Times, has been excluded from the meeting.

Since he began covering the department in 2017, he has attended nearly a dozen G-7 and G-20 meetings in person.

Matt Grossman, an economics reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was also denied a credential. A spokesperson for the Journal declined to comment.

Nicole Taylor, a spokesperson for the Times, said in a statement that the decision was “not just another disturbing effort by the administration to undermine independent journalism, but a blatant attempt to evade public scrutiny.”

“With the war in Iran, sanctions, the bond markets and inflation on the agenda for the G-20 finance ministers, the stakes of this gathering are significant for the global economy and the American people,” the statement said.

A spokesperson for the Treasury Department said in a statement that the department would be welcoming “nearly 300 members of the media from approximately a dozen countries,” including reporters from NPR, The Washington Post and Al Jazeera.

“Secretary (Scott) Bessent will participate in numerous media engagements throughout the event, including one-on-one interviews with local and national outlets across the political spectrum,” the spokesperson said.

“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.”

The Treasury spokesperson added that a reporter from the Times would attend.

The department granted a credential to Jim Tankersley, the Times’ Berlin bureau chief who reports on Germany and other parts of Europe.

Dick Stevenson, the Times’ Washington bureau chief, sent a letter to the Treasury Department on Aug 27 asking officials to reconsider the decision not to credential Rappeport, according to a Times spokesperson.

So far, the department has not reversed its decision.

The decision to exclude individual reporters is the latest example of the Trump administration restricting access to certain journalists.

In 2025, the Pentagon imposed a restrictive press policy that prompted dozens of journalists from mainstream publications to surrender their press badges in protest.

The Times sued the Pentagon, arguing that the new policy violated the First Amendment, and a judge later ruled that it was unconstitutional . NYTIMES

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .

US Treasury bars some reporters from G-20 finance meeting — The Straits Times | AIPROPX