US press corps shut out of Donald Trump's Asia trip take their own 'family photo' at APEC summit

Only Fox News was allowed access to the event, where Donald Trump met world leaders including Vladimir Putin

White House journalists following Donald Trump on his trip to south-east Asia were shut out of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Vietnam on Friday and Saturday, stopping reporters from covering his meetings with the likes of Vladimir Putin and preventing photographers taking images of the US President.

In protest, they decided to take a photo of their own. Posted on Twitter by Bloomberg News reporter Jennifer Jacobs, the image showed a number of White House reporters and photographers posing near the Vietnamese coastal city of Da Nang, where the conference is taking place.

The image was captioned “Family photo. – Danang, Vietnam” and showed journalists from ABC News, Reuters, Fox News, the Washington Post, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and others.

David Nakamura, a Washington Post reporter, commented: “Love this. Traveling U.S. press corps, shut out of APEC coverage, takes matters into its own hands…”

The small group of White House reporters, known as the travel pool, that are covering Mr Trump on his trip to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines were told they were not allowed to attend key events at the APEC conference, including Mr Trump’s informal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Instead, they were instructed to stay in a holding room. Only a video crew from Fox News – Mr Trump’s favourite broadcaster - and an official White House photographer were given access to the meetings.

In response, one journalist, New York Times photographer Doug Millis, tweeted a photo of a black rectangle alongside the caption: “This what our APEC Summit photo coverage looks today (sic) in Da Nang Vietnam. Blank. No coverage by the White House Travel Pool photographers traveling with Donald Trump.”

The White House reportedly told journalists it had tried to secure them access to the events but had been unable to do so.

According to Politico, White House official Michelle Meadows wrote in an email to reporters: “We have been negotiating since the pre-advance and have made progress on almost every event for this swing.

“We ALWAYS ask for the full Pool to have access but we do not always get what we want.”