Dozens of news organisations urge US not to slash journalist visas

PARIS - More than 100 international media groups and industry bodies urged Washington on Thursday 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 last month 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.

Current rules allow journalists to stay in the US for up to five years, meaning they "gain the deep knowledge, trusted networks and contextual immersion needed to explain America to global audiences", the signatories said.

"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 (ICE) 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 Thursday.

"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.

Trump popularised the term "fake news" from around the time of his 2017 inauguration.

And just last month the White House lashed out at what it called a "foreign influence operation" by German-owned outlet Politico, which published an article criticisingTrump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.