By Helen Coster
June 2 (Reuters) - The annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner will be held on July 24, the organization said on Tuesday, nearly three months after it was postponed following a shooting.
The black-tie gathering of journalists and politicians in Washington was postponed after a suspect stormed a security checkpoint and fired a shotgun outside the event on April 25, with U.S. President Donald Trump in attendance.
In a letter to association members on Tuesday, WHCA president
and CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang said the decision to reschedule was not "automatic," and the event will feature "significantly enhanced safety measures and new access procedures."
The White House did not immediately respond to a question about whether Trump will attend. He previously said that he would do so.
In her letter, Jiang said the association has raised funds to ensure WHCA members who purchased tickets will not have to pay if they attend the second event, which she described as a "more intimate gathering."
"This dinner will not only be an opportunity to carry out our program," Jiang wrote. "It will be a statement that violence has no place in American life and a free press will not be intimidated into silence."
The annual gala - a Washington fixture for more than a century - raises funds for journalism scholarships and celebrates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which guarantees free speech and a free press.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Helen Coster, writing by Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Rod Nickel)
