AI-Summary – News For Tomorrow
Over 100 international media groups and industry bodies are protesting the Trump administration’s plan to significantly shorten the permissible stay for foreign journalists in the US, potentially to as little as 90 days for Chinese media. They argue this change would negatively impact the quality and quantity of US coverage, undermining America’s global standing and creating a vacuum for misinformation. Signatories, including major news agencies like AFP and Reuters, public broadcasters, and press freedom organizations, warn that the move, part of a broader crackdown on foreigners, risks leaving the world less informed about American affairs and vulnerable to skewed narratives. The group urges against this proposal and advocates that informing international audiences is critical to US interests.
News summary provided by Gemini AI.
PARIS – More than 100 international media groups and industry bodies urged the Trump administration on Sept 11 not to slash the time foreign journalists can stay in the United States, saying the planned change would hurt its image abroad.
President Donald Trump’s plan would “reduce the quantity and quality of coverage coming from the US” and “damage, not enhance, America’s global standing”, AFP news agency and 117 other signatories to a joint statement wrote.
Backers of the appeal ranged from international news agencies like AFP and Reuters, to public broadcasters, including Britain’s BBC, Germany’s ARD and Australia’s ABC, national newspapers like Canada’s Globe and Mail or the Irish Times, and press freedom groups, including Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The Trump administration in August trailed plans to
slash journalists’ stays
to a renewable 240-day period – or just 90 days for Chinese media workers – alongside a four-year limit on student visas.
“This serves a critical US interest: Ensuring that America’s policies, culture and leadership are clearly and accurately communicated to international audiences in their own languages,” they added.
The visa proposals are part of a wider crackdown on foreigners in the US.
Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents
arrested hundreds of South Korean workers
who were helping set up a Hyundai factory in Georgia, shocking the US ally.
Slashing the length of journalists’ stays “risks leaving the world less informed about American news and current affairs”, the news organisations said.
“Rival nations and powerful adversaries will waste no time in filling the resulting vacuum with narratives about the US that serve their own interests before the truth,” they added.
Mr Trump popularised the term “fake news” from around the time of his 2017 inauguration.
And in August the White House lashed out at what it called a “foreign influence operation” by German-owned outlet Politico, which published an article criticising Mr Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Mr Steve Witkoff. AFP
