“I don’t know if I’m safe, I don’t know if they’ll kill me, I don’t know what they will do next.”
Simon Ateba of Today News Africa made this statement to WMAL host and Daily Caller editorial director Vince Coglianese after the White House refused to allow him to pose his question and, in essence, removed him from the recording of Tuesday’s briefing. Ateba is the primary White House correspondent for Today News Africa.
Monday during a press conference, Ateba interrupted White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to pose a question, and Jean-Pierre threatened to end the session if Ateba did not get his way.
Real Clear Politics reports that Ateba’s comments were edited out of the White House recording before it was uploaded to YouTube.
Unedited version:
The White House has edited out every interaction between KJP and @simonateba from their YouTube livestream. pic.twitter.com/QxAgEWFItc
— Kevin McMahon (@Kevin__McMahon) June 26, 2023
The unedited version:
Simon Ateba is back at it again in the press briefing. pic.twitter.com/4BXTT4gfbw
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 26, 2023
In the unedited version of the White House briefing film, Ateba is heard accusing the White House of discrimination.
Ateba said, “So are you going to take questions from me?… because you’ve been discriminating against me for the past nine months.”
Jean-Pierre described Ateba’s interruption as “extremely rude” during the course of the conversation. She continued by stating that if Ateba continued to interrupt, the press conference would end abruptly.
“I’ve been in this briefing room. Ateba stated, “I’ve been trying to ask you one question during my turn.” “You are not granting press freedom.”
Since September, Ateba has been unable to pose a question, according to Real Clear Politics.
According to a report from the publication, after Fox News contacted The White House about the edited footage, the administration returned the missing segment and explained that a malfunction in the encoder that sent the live stream to YouTube was to blame.
That is certainly practical.
Ateba and, presumably, the rest of this nation’s sane citizens have grave doubts that it is a “technical error.”
According to Ateba, who was quoted by Fox News, he has been consistently excluded from White House events and press briefings for months, and his communications go unanswered.
Ateba asserts that the White House employs blacklisting techniques when a journalist is regarded to be a nuisance. They refuse to answer their communications and inquiries and prevent them from participating in background briefings.
Ateba stated that he believed it was disrespectful for the Biden administration to dispatch officials to Africa under the guise of strengthening ties with the continent while excluding an African reporter from the briefing room in Washington.
“And you pass on him, you banned him, you sidelined him, you oppressed him, you discriminated against him only to go to Africa and claim that you want to strengthen ties. It’s actually actually offensive. It’s shocking,” he told Fox News.
More on this story via The Republic Brief:
“They’re trying to keep me out of the briefing room. I don’t know how far they will go to silence me,” Ateba told The Daily Caller. CONTINUE READING…
