A mini-revolt by news organisations against White House press restrictions gathered momentum Monday as USA Today joined other media shops to have declared a boycott on officially issued photographs.

“We do not publish, either in print or online, handout photos originating from the White House press office, except in very extraordinary circumstances,” deputy director Andrew Scott said in a memo to employees. “The functions of the president at the White House are fundamentally public in nature, and should be documented for the public by independent news organizations, not solely by the White House press office.”

The memo followed the submission to the White House last Thursday of a letter signed by 38 US media organisations to protest limits on photographers' access.

"Journalists are routinely being denied the right to photograph or videotape the president while he is performing his official duties," the letter said. "As surely as if they were placing a hand over a journalist’s camera lens, officials in this administration are blocking the public from having an independent view of important functions of the executive branch of government."

The letter was signed by all the US network news divisions and major media organisations, including Gannett, owner of USA Today. USA Today is in the top tier of American newspapers, with a daily subscription base of about 1.7m, including digital editions.

Reporters at an official briefing Thursday accused the White House of barring photographers from government activities that under past administrations had been open to the press. The letter listed seven examples since July, including a presidential meeting with members of the congressional Hispanic caucus, a presidential meeting with former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and a presidential meeting with Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist.

The White House claimed the events were private. But that rationale “is undermined when the White House contemporaneously releases its own photograph of a so-called private event through social media,” the letter said.

The White House makes frequent use of its Flickr stream to release pictures by its official photographer, Pete Souza.

The Obama administration has aggressively discouraged news organizations from pursuing sensitive stories, seizing reporters’ phone records and naming at least one journalist who published leaked information as a possible criminal co-conspirator. The reliance of the Obama White House on official photography has been a longtime source of complaint.