Disney lifts ban on paper following backlash

LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Co. has lifted its ban on Los Angeles Times reporters and critics from its press screenings after a widespread backlash prompted several media outlets to announce their own boycotts of Disney movies.

In a statement on Tuesday, Disney said it was restoring access to the newspaper after “productive discussions with the newly installed leadership” at the Los Angeles Times.

Disney had barred the Times from its screenings after the paper published a two-part investigative series on the company’s business dealings in Anaheim, California, where Disneyland is located.

Disney’s punitive measures against the Times led to many outlets refusing advance coverage of the studio’s films, including the New York Times, the Boston Globe and The A.V. Club. Four prominent film critics groups had said on Tuesday that they would bar Disney films from receiving awards consideration.

The ban’s withdrawal ended an unusual clash between Hollywood’s arguably most powerful studio and the media outlets that regularly write about its movies.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Boston Society of Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics all said they wouldn’t consider Disney films for their year-end awards.

The critics groups noted that it was “admittedly extraordinary” to “take any action that might penalize film artists for decisions beyond their control.”

“But Disney brought forth this action when it chose to punish the Times’ journalists rather than express its disagreement with a business story via ongoing public discussion,” the statement said. “Disney’s response should gravely concern all who believe in the importance of a free press, artists included.”

The New York Times said in a statement it wouldn’t attend preview screenings of Disney films while the L.A. Times could not, saying Disney’s move was a “dangerous precedent and not at all in the public interest.”

On Friday, Disney said the L.A. Times series in September, detailing what it characterized as a complicated and increasingly tense relationship between Anaheim and the company, showed “a complete disregard for basic journalistic standards.”

Disney said the L.A. Times had published a “biased and inaccurate series, wholly driven by a political agenda.”

Daniel Miller, the L.A. Times reporter who wrote the series, tweeted that “Disney never asked for a correction.” The newspaper declined further comment.

With the ban concluded, critics said they would return to business as usual. Disney’s upcoming films are the Pixar release Coco and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

“See you guys at the Coco screening,” New York Times critic A.O. Scott wrote.