Aaron Ide, Director of Guest Services at the Waldorf, told Mitchell Newman, vice president of Mitchell's--which delivers papers, including The New York Times, to all 1,500 rooms at the Waldorf--that he would be barred from distributing The Earth Times at the hotel on Monday morning. The Waldorf's rooms have been entirely taken over for the Forum's participants. Mr. Newman, who's been doing business with the Waldorf for more than two decades, said he had no choice but to follow the directive not to distribute The Earth Times. He said that Mr. Ide told him that the Forum was upset over an article appearing in this morning's Earth Times about media complaints over lack of access to the conference.

Mr. Ide subsequently confirmed this to The Earth Times, saying that he received his orders from Valerie Weinzierl, a Forum media officer. Contacted by The Earth Times, Ms Weinzierl confirmed that the decision concerning banning The Earth Times from the Forum was taken at a meeting of Forum officials Sunday morning.

"Whatever games you are playing are just not cool," Ms Weinzierl said, before hanging up the phone.

"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."

Meanwhile, The Earth Times's Jayanti Gupte--wife of Editor-in-Chief Pranay Gupte--who was assisting with hand-distributing Sunday's Earth Times at the Waldorf, reported that each time she placed papers in locations around the Waldorf, they would be picked up by security personnel or Forum officials and taken away. Copies of The Earth Times have also been taken away without distribution at the Metropolitan Hotel, where many Forum staff are staying.

Amarjit Sidhu, a photographer for The Earth Times, was prohibited from covering a press event at the Metropolitan Hotel featuring Bill Gates. He was told by Charles D. McLean, the Forum's spokesman, that the action was taken because of this morning's article in The Earth Times.

Roman Rollnick and Preeti Dawra, both Earth Times correspondents, were warned late Sunday afternoon by Forum media officials that if they distributed The Earth Times or any press release at the Forum's media center at the Inter-Continental Hotel, they would be thrown out of the premises and their credentials revoked.

"I am surprised to hear that The Earth Times newspaper has been banned from the Forum," said Sreenath Sreenivasan, a professor of journalism at Columbia University's 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," said Professor Sreenivasan.

The Earth Times is published by the Earth Times Foundation, a not-for profit organization duly certified as tax-exempt under Section 501 (c) (3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. The Foundation also produces books under the imprint of Earth Times Books. And it published a magazine, The Earth Times Monthly. Theodore W. Kheel, the mediator and labor lawyer, is chairman and publisher; Louis Silverstein, former assistant managing editor of the New York Times, is executive editor. Staff contributors include Tom Wicker, Paul Hofmann, Selwyn Raab and John Corry, all formerly of the New York Times; and Michael Littlejohns, a veteran diplomatic correspondent at the Financial Times.

The Earth Times has appeared as a daily newspaper at most major UN conferences since 1991, and at other global meetings, including the World Trade Organization's ministerial meeting in Qatar recently. It published a daily newspaper at Davos 2001 in Switzerland, where Professor Klaus Schwab--founder and president of the World Economic Forum--hailed the newspaper as "unique and contributing to the enhancement of the Davos Experience."