McLean also personally barred this newspaper's photographer, Amarjit Sidhu, from covering a meeting with Bill Gates to which he had earlier been invited. Sidhu, who was formally accredited, was not told why he was not welcome. In a further show of discontent and intimidation, Forum press officials warned Earth Times staff members not to distribute a press release on the banning among colleagues. Forum officials seized newspapers and press releases from the arms of Hanna Sundberg, a young reporter for The Earth Times, as she sought to distribute them in the media center set up by the Forum at the Intercontinental Hotel.

McLean, who did not return this newspaper's calls, was reportedly upset over an article appearing in Sunday morning's Earth Times about media complaints over lack of access to the Forum's meetings. His assistant, Valerie Weinzierl, ordered the Waldorf's director of guest services, Aaron Ide, to bar The Earth Times from being delivered to the Waldorf Monday morning. In confirming this, Weinzierl told The Earth Times: "Whatever games you are playing are just not cool." Then she hung up the phone.

Ide of the Waldorf relayed Weinzierl's directive to Mitchell E. Newman, vice president of Mitchell's, which delivers The Earth Times--and other newspapers such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal--to some 1,400 rooms occupied by Forum participants at the Waldorf. Newman then called The Earth Times's editor-in-chief, Pranay Gupte, to inform him that his company had been forbidden from distributing the paper Monday morning at the Waldorf.

The Earth Times is paying Mitchell's almost $1,000 a day for distribution to some 20 hotels in the Midtown Manhattan area, and also nearly $700 a day to the Intercontinental for room-to-room delivery. The not-for-profit newspaper's revenues are generated through advertisements and foundation grants. About 5,000 copies are being printed daily for distribution during the Davos 2002 meeting.

In a taste of the grim atmosphere at the Intercontinental Hotel where reporters without the hallowed white entry passes to the Waldorf-Astoria are only able to watch some of the proceedings on television, one senior New York writer said, "It is clear the press here has its hands tied. I do not want to tell you my name because I need to be invited next year; nevertheless, what has happened to The Earth Times and the rest of us here is an outrageous abuse of power and misdirection. Their whole motto is to do good in the world, so you don't clam up on the press."

While McLean told colleagues that staff from this newspaper would be banned from attending further WEF meetings, his staff seized copies of The Earth Times at the Intercontinental Hotel and removed them--even though they are not the property of the Forum. Asked to explain the action, McLean insisted to this reporter, "No-one has barred the Earth Times. It has been distributed every day and it will be distributed normally tomorrow. We have not seized any copies."

One German reporter said that McLean told him that "The Earth Times has only 20 subscribers--it's not an important newspaper." The Earth Times was founded 11 years ago by Gupte and Theodore W. Kheel, one of America's most eminent negotiators and lawyers. It is produced by a highly experienced team of journalists with long years at prestigious publications such as the New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, Reuters and the Financial Times. The Earth Times appears as a daily on the Web throughout the year (http://www.earthtimes.org), and as a print daily at major international conferences. Published by the Earth Times Foundation, it also produces a magazine, The Earth Times Monthly. Its annual budget is around $1.1 million.

As copies of The Earth Times press release were seized by public relations staff yesterday, delegates and journalists snapped up copies of Sunday's edition which reported in detail on the restrictions. No reason was given by McLean or his staff for the action, which journalists insisted was illegal in a nation renowned for its freedom of speech and the vigorous upholding of this freedom.

"This is completely outrageous," said Theodore W. Kheel, Publisher and Chairman of The Earth Times. Does the Forum forget that the First Amendment is still in effect in America? This is a country which still enjoys freedom of the press."

"I am surprised to hear that The Earth Times newspaper has been banned from the Forum," said Sreenath Sreenivasan, a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. "There can be no justification for such a stand. If the organizers disagree with any paper's editorial content, they should respond by issuing a press release, not a press ban. This is unacceptable anywhere, especially at such a high-profile event."

But the damage, not only to this newspaper but to the forum's own image, had been done. International news agencies, major newspapers, radio and television networks started running the story of discrimination against the press.

Thus the leading Spanish daily, La Vanguardia, told its readers: "Lack of access to the World Economic Forum has caused indignation among many of the journalists who lack the coveted white pass enabling them entry into the inner sanctum of the luxurious Waldorf Astoria." It went on to quote at length the Earth Times story. The Voice of America, the Financial Times, and other British, American, South African, French, German, Brazilian, and Turkish media, to name a few, all said they would report on the banning of the Earth Times.

"The Earth Times is to be congratulated for its coverage of this conference," said Antonio Lafuente, correspondent of the Spanish EFE news agency. One Financial Times correspondent, whose newspaper also said it would report the banning, said he was "outraged" at the treatment of the media--in fact, surprised there had not been more of a protest by journalists.

In a further action that astounded this reporter, a former senior member of the US government was asked by Secret Service agents to leave the Intercontinental Hotel because he was not accredited to the Forum. The former official, who requested anonymity, was giving this newspaper an interview in which he was overheard to be critical of the Forum. He said the action was amazing given that he was speaking in the lobby of a public hotel.

The official was overheard saying he felt the Forum run by the Swiss millionaire Klaus Schwab had become too big for its boots, that it was "elitist and snobbish". He said that Schwab had created three levels of access for government chiefs, big corporations and the media, and that he was manipulating them in such a way as to keep them separate from one another as it suited him. "What do big business people pay $21,000 a head to come and hear here? Besides the obvious and useful networking, they are not learning anything. When I represented Washington at Davos in 1997 I got no sense from anyone at the meeting of the Asian financial crisis which was looming at the time. So how useful is it? What is the value-added here? Are journalists and others going to be asked to pay to attend future Forums?"

But the dilemma for the press was aptly described by Joan Veon of USA Radio Network, which also reported the action against The Earth Times. "You have secrecy here, and there has never been secrecy at Davos before."

Veon, who has covered Davos for many years, said the most likely reason for the secrecy was that major changes this year were developing in the relationship between government and business. "So it is very important that this should be covered. I must remain, even if the restrictions mean picking up just crumbs. Most people do not understand the new partnership, most Americans don't even know what the term civil society means, so freedom of the press is only good so long as you do not explain the real agenda to people. We have a duty to find out what they are hiding in this new shift of governance."

Tony Juniper, director-designate of the NGO Friends of the Earth, joined the Forum this year as a guest. He said the organizers were wrong to admit to the Waldorf only those media with whom they agreed. "By excluding potentially critical voices, the Forum runs the risk of reinforcing the notion that it is an exclusive club resistant to ideas different from those of its members. We are here to speak at this meeting because we feel it is important to bring dissenting voices and views a little closer to those of its guests."

Late last night, a man claiming to represent Klaus Schwab called The Earth Times to say that Professor Schwab thought it had been a mistake on Charles McLean's part to ban The Earth Times. The caller said that Schwab would personally call this paper's editor to apologize. But the call never came.