OPEC Bars Bloomberg, Reuters, WSJ Reporters From Vienna Conference

Reporters from three large news organisations have not been invited to cover a meeting of oil industry CEOs with energy ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

 

The organisation’s secretariat typically gives accreditation to any journalist who wants to cover the meeting at their headquarters. This time, that opportunity wasn’t offered to reporters from Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, according to Reuters.

 

The three media organisations are among the world’s leading suppliers of financial news and information.

They compete to cover news in real time from events such as OPEC+ meetings, which can have a material impact on the price of oil and the global cost of energy.

 

The OPEC Secretariat, which oversees media accreditation, had issued invitations to some journalists to cover the OPEC-hosted July 5-6 seminar in Vienna, Austria.

 

OPEC sent an email on Tuesday inviting reporters at other media organisations to attend, the sources said.

Those included the Financial Times and trade publication Argus, as well as S&P Global Commodity Insights, known as Platts, the sources said. The communication stated that “this email serves as your personal invitation,” according to a copy forwarded to Reuters.

 

However, reporters who normally cover OPEC from Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal did not receive invitations, according to people familiar with the matter who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

 

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, known as OPEC+, includes top oil producers Saudi Arabia and Russia. OPEC+ pumps more than 40% of the world’s oil supply.

 

Reuters reports that OPEC declined to comment on why reporters from the three media organisations were not invited to cover the OPEC-hosted seminar.

 

“We believe that transparency and a free press serve both readers, markets and the public interest, and we object to this restriction on coverage,” a spokesperson for Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters Corp (TRI.TO), said on Wednesday.

 

“Reuters will continue to cover OPEC in an independent, impartial and reliable way, in keeping with the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.”

 

According to the report, reporters at Reuters received an email on Tuesday stating that earlier accreditation was not an invitation to attend. Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal reporters received a similar communication, sources familiar with the matter said.

 

“We are very concerned by the prospect of OPEC excluding certain journalists, including from Bloomberg, from next week’s seminar,” Bloomberg News said in a statement.

 

“For the sake of market transparency, we strongly advocate for OPEC to allow journalists from relevant global news outlets to attend.”

 

The Wall Street Journal did not respond to a request for comment.

 

This would be the second consecutive OPEC+ event in which OPEC has restricted media coverage. The same media groups were denied access to OPEC’s Vienna headquarters during a June 4 oil policy meeting.

OPEC gave no reason for excluding the three organizations from the previous policy meeting in June.