Photographers, Reporters, Kept Away From Obama Meeting Dalai Lama

Photographers, Reporters, Kept Away From Obama Meeting Dalai Lama: "WASHINGTON, DC (February 18, 2010) – The Associated Press, Reuters, Getty Images, and other major news agencies are today refusing to distribute a White House hand-out image of the Dalai Lama meeting with President Barack Obama after the press was shut out of the event.

Only White House photographer Pete Souza was allowed to photograph the sit down.

In explaining to members why AP declined to distribute the picture, AP editors said that its policy bars distribution of hand-out photos when the news organization feels that media access to an event would have been possible, either as a group or through a pooled photo arrangement.

'Government-controlled coverage is not acceptable in societies that promote freedom,' said Kathleen Carroll, executive editor of the AP. 'And that is why we do not distribute government handouts of events that we believe should be open to the press and therefore the public at large.

The Washington Post, the newspaper of record in the nation's capital, is also refusing to publish the hand-out, assistant managing editor Michel du Cille said tonight.

The New York Times will also refuse to publish the picture."

An open and transparent government?? Obama is playing to China's tune now. ~~ The Munz