Press ordered from Oval Office

The White House ordered reporters out of the Oval Office Wednesday and may decide to bar them from covering future meetings between the President and heads of state.

Spokesman Larry Speakes was angered when ABC correspondent Sam Donaldson, violating a rule prohibiting press questions during the ceremony, asked Mr. Reagan a question about Cuba as the president posed for photographs with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Mr. Speakes ordered floodlights to be turned off and told reporters and cameramen to leave immediately.

The White House has often threatened to allow only camera crews in the Oval Office, saying that questioning during a state visit is undignified and embarrassing. Speakes said later he had not decided whether news media people would be banned from future meetings.