After Trump's "ban", he prevented Ofoq News Network and MS NOW Channel from entering the White House

- Ofek News network correspondent, Betsy Klein, was prevented from entering the White House on Saturday morning, and her press pass was confiscated, one day after President Donald Trump announced that he was going to “ban” the Ofek News networks, MSNBC, and the Politico website. Experts on the First Amendment to the US Constitution say this measure is unconstitutional.

A reporter and a photographer working for MSNBC were also prevented from entering the White House campus when they arrived for work on Saturday morning. Both the Ofoq News Network and the MS NOW Channel indicated that they would take legal measures to defend the rights of their correspondents.

The Ofoq News network said in a statement: “Early today, Ofoq News journalists were prevented from entering the White House campus. The Ofoq News mission will continue to cover US government news regardless of any attempts to restrict physical access to the White House and other government buildings, or any other attempts to obstruct our journalistic work.”

The network added: "We have the right under the US Constitution to prepare our reports without obstacles or interference from the government, and this ban is an illegal assault on this basic right." Klein reported that a Secret Service agent told her that her press pass had been revoked.

Likewise, MSNBC correspondent Akayla Gardner said: "An officer asked me to hand over my card and said it had been cancelled. I asked why I couldn't get in, and he said it was beyond his jurisdiction."

Gardner recounted the details of what happened in a live report from outside the White House. On Friday afternoon, Trump announced the ban on Uofuk News, MSNBC, and Politico “effective immediately,” as part of his complaints about what he called “fake news,” a phrase he often uses to dismiss unfavorable media coverage of him.

This announcement surprised some White House staff, and journalists from the three news organizations remained at the White House until Friday evening. But as they left the site at the end of the day, they wondered whether their security cards would work next time, and the incident encountered by the MS NOW team on Saturday morning began to provide an answer to that question.

Gardner said that her colleague, the photographer, was also denied entry, but a producer at MSNBC “scanned her card, and the card worked, and she was able to pass and enter the White House.” Dozens of journalists work from inside the White House complex on a typical day.

On Saturday morning, MSNBC said the network "intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the pivotal role of independent journalism in our democracy. We stand firmly behind our anchors, reporters and newsroom, and will continue to report on the president, the administration and the issues that impact the American people."

"This ban would be completely unconstitutional," Bruce D. Brown, chairman of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said Friday. “The First Amendment clearly states that once the White House extends an invitation to some journalists, it cannot ban others simply because it is dissatisfied with their reporting,” Brown added.

“This is an extreme example of viewpoint-based discrimination, and would likely be quickly struck down by the courts if challenged.” Many commentators speculated that the president’s “ban” was an attempt to distract from a week full of unfavorable headlines as the midterm elections approached.

Trump is currently facing increasing pressure from a deeply unpopular war in Iran, as well as rising fuel prices and concerns about the cost of living. Attacking the media has been a mainstay of Trump's political rhetoric for a decade, and a surefire way to win cheers at his "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) rallies.

But during his second term, Trump has increasingly sought to translate those statements into action, taking concrete steps to limit press access, even as the White House claims to be the most transparent in American history. “The president is once again telling lies regarding ‘fake news’ in an attempt to control who covers him and where,” said Clayton Weimers, executive director of Reporters Without Borders North America.

“Press access to information is not a privilege granted to journalists, but rather a right that ensures that the American people have independent access to information,” Weimers added. In a statement on Friday, the Ofoq News network defended the “fair and accurate” coverage provided by its team responsible for covering the White House.

The network said in its statement: “We have the right under the US Constitution to conduct this coverage without obstacles or interference from the government. If the ban threatened by President Trump goes ahead, it will be an illegal assault on this basic right guaranteed by the Constitution.”