Senators ban Ottawa Citizen reporter from team charter after Uber scandal

The aftermath of the Ottawa Senators' Uber scandal has taken another turn.

The Ottawa Citizen - the newspaper that posted the video of seven Sens players trash talking assistant coach Marty Raymond while they were unknowingly being recorded during an Uber ride in Arizona - said on Friday that the club banned longtime reporter Ken Warren from the team's charter, according to the Canadian Press.

This comes after the Citizen rejected the team's request to remove the video from its website on Wednesday.

Warren had been given his usual travel itinerary, but upon arriving at the airport was told he couldn't board the team's flight to Tampa Bay.

"I can confirm it happened this morning," said the paper's editor-in-chief Michelle Richardson. "For us, it doesn’t really change our fundamentals. We’re still committed to covering the Senators, both the good and the bad. Our coverage is important to our readers and to their fans and that’s not going to change."

This isn't the first time the Senators have banned a reporter from the team's charter, according to Postmedia's Michael Traikos.

TSN's Brent Wallace also lost his seat on the plane last year after asking owner Eugene Melnyk about a report that suggested he had been withholding bonus money from his employees. Melnyk denied the allegation, but once the cameras were turned off, bystanders saw him turn to Wallace and say, "I’m going to bury you," according to Traikos.

Traikos adds that the Senators are the lone remaining NHL club to allow reporters to travel with the team, but Sylvain St-Laurent of Le Droit is one of the few who still has a seat.