HK journalists’ ban sends ‘chilling effect’ – correspondents’ group

MANILA, Philippines – The blacklisting of several foreign journalists over an incident at a summit in Bali, Indonesia last year sends a “chilling effect” to journalists worldwide, the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) said Sunday, November 23.

The FOCAP views “with grave concern” the banning of several Hong Kong journalists, who have been blacklisted from entering the Philippines by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) over their aggressive questioning of President Benigno Aquino III at the APEC Summit in Bali, Indonesia in 2013.

According to the BI, they acted on the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency’s (NICA) assessment that the journalists pose a “public safety threat.” The journalists have been in their blacklist since June this year, the agency said Sunday.

“While governments have the prerogative to deny entry to foreigners, we would like to clarify from the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) as well as the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) what particular actions served as basis to declare these journalists a public safety threat, which eventually led to the blacklisting,” the FOCAP said in a statement Sunday.

The group said “FOCAP believes that an intelligence agency’s declaration of a journalist as a public safety threat – based only on his/her conduct of asking questions of the President and without a single complaint from either the foreign affairs department or the press office of the Office of the President, both political offices more adept at dealing with the press – gives a chilling message to journalists worldwide: If the government’s intelligence agency does not the like the way you ask questions, you may be labeled a public safety threat and blacklisted from the Philippines.”

“This is the first instance we know of that a journalist has been barred from the Philippines for conduct, done in connection with his duties as a journalist, which constituted a ‘public safety threat,'” FOCAP added.

Malacañang, at the time of the APEC incident, said the journalists had “crossed the line” by aggressively questioning Aquino about the 2010 hostage siege in Manila that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead.

Hong Kong newspapers reported that 9 journalists from the Chinese territory have been banned ahead of the APEC summit to be hosted by the Philippines next year.

Hong Kong media said the journalists and technicians were from Now TV, RTHK and Commercial Radio. – With reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com