Donald Trump's media war threatens journalists globally, warns CPJ

The Trump administration should 'act as a champion of press freedom', rather than prosecute a war with mainstream US media that could 'send a signal to other countries that it is OK to verbally abuse journalists and undermine their credibility', a senior member of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Saturday.

Rob Mahoney, deputy executive director of the CPJ, further said Trump's attacks on the press do not 'help our work trying to deal with countries like Turkey, Ethiopia or Venezuela, where you have governments, who want to nothing more than to silence and intimidate the press', as reported by the Guardian.

Mahoney also said attempts to declare the mainstream media the 'enemy of the American people' looked like a deliberate effort by the White House to 'inoculate itself from criticism'.

The White House, on Friday, blocked a number of media organisations, including the New York Times, CNN and the Guardian, from an off-camera press briefing with press secretary Sean Spicer.

Later that night, Trump continued his tirade against the media and tweeted, "FAKE NEWS media knowingly doesn't tell the truth. A great danger to our country. The failing @nytimes has become a joke. Likewise @CNN. Sad!"

The White House Correspondents Association (WHCA), however, played down the issue.