African Journalist Kicked out of White House Correspondents Association, Alleges It Has a Double Standard

A journalist has accused the group that liaises between the White Home and the press corps—the White Home Correspondents Affiliation (WHCA)—of discriminating in opposition to him by kicking him out of the affiliation and having a double commonplace.

Simon Ateba, the founder and chief White Home correspondent for Immediately Information Africa, was knowledgeable final week that his membership to the WHCA wouldn’t be renewed. Members are required to resume their membership as early as Jan. 1.

“I regret to inform you that your application for membership has been declined,” WHCA government director Steven Thomma wrote to Ateba, who’s from Cameroon, in a letter seen by The Epoch Instances.

“Your application was carefully reviewed by a committee of journalists looking at your listed news organization and your assignment based on all of the information you provided and any other information they found available,” he continued.

Thomma famous that the committee “did not see evidence that [Ateba is] ‘employed on the editorial staff of a newspaper, periodical, wire service, radio, TV, or other news-gathering organization that reports on the White House’ as required by our by-laws.”

Nonetheless, Immediately Information Africa has been reporting on the White Home for the reason that Trump administration and Ateba held WHCA affiliate membership between 2021 and 2022.

Thomma additionally wrote that “the committee noted repeated instances where your behavior violated the expectations for membership outlined in our bylaws, which have been detailed to you previously.”

The Epoch Instances reached out to Thomma for remark. WHCA president Tamara Keith, a White Home correspondent for Nationwide Public Radio, declined to remark to The Epoch Instances.

Ateba has repeatedly feuded with the White Home, particularly press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

In December 2021, Ateba shouted questions throughout a White Home press briefing in regards to the Biden administration’s journey bans on Botswana, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, and South Africa because of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

In Might 2022, Ateba was reprimanded by the WHCA for interrupting Jen Psaki’s final day as White Home press secretary. The WHCA threatened him with expulsion.

The next August, Nationwide Safety Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby rebuked Ateba for interrupting a briefing.

In November, Jean-Pierre exploded at Ateba saying “I’m done with you” for sticking up for a reporter attempting to ask Anthony Fauci, throughout his remaining White Home press briefing, in regards to the origins of COVID.

The WHCA afterward reprimanded him.

In December, Ateba sought to ask a query forward of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit however was rejected by Jean-Pierre, who proceeded to storm out of the press briefing.

Ateba advised The Epoch Instances that he intends to take authorized motion in opposition to the WHCA. He mentioned his lawyer will write to the affiliation to inform them they’ve time to reverse their choice or else a lawsuit shall be filed in opposition to them.

Ateba accused the WHCA of a double commonplace in that there have been journalists throughout the Trump administration, together with CNN’s Jim Acosta, who got here beneath hearth for showboating and appearing like activists versus journalists.

“If Jim Acosta does it, if CNN does it, they believe that those are the people that they should fight for, right?” he mentioned. “They believe that those people are more important. They believe that those people are worth it.”

Ateba accused the WHCA, Keith, and Jean-Pierre of getting a superiority advanced.

“There’s this level of disdain, this level of ‘I’m better than you. You come from Africa. We’re doing you a favor to be at the White House covering U.S.-Africa relations,’” he mentioned.

Ateba alleged racial discrimination in opposition to him by Jean-Pierre.

“She believes that she’s better than me, right?” he mentioned. “Karine Jean-Pierre, she believes that the other people in the briefing room they’re better than the people who come from Africa, right?

“When she talks to a white person, you know, she [believes] that, you know, this [is] a great person. When she talks to me [she feels I’m] an inferior person.”

Ateba accused the WHCA of “colluding” with Jean-Pierre “to silence me.”

Thomma’s letter famous that Ateba has publicly mentioned that he doesn’t obtain a wage, which Thomma mentioned is a violation of WHCA membership guidelines—although such a requirement doesn’t seem within the WHCA bylaws.

Regardless of being denied renewed membership, Ateba has mentioned he’ll proceed to cowl the White Home.

By not having WHCA membership, Ateba won’t be allowed sure entry together with being a part of the press pool—a small group of journalists protecting the president and different principals on journeys and at sure occasions—and invites to affiliation occasions such because the annual glitzy White Home Correspondents Dinner.