HK journalists off Philippine blacklist
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The Philippines has lifted an entry ban against nine Hong Kong journalists who shouted questions at President Benigno Aquino last year, a government spokeswoman said yesterday after a media backlash.
The journalists had also been expelled from an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Indonesia last year after they aggressively questioned Aquino over a 2010 Manila hostage crisis that left eight Hong Kong residents dead.
Bureau of Immigration spokeswoman Elaine Tan said the ban was lifted because Aquino was not put through another bout of aggressive questioning at the Apec summit in Beijing earlier this month. “After a re-evaluation, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency said they [Hong Kong journalists] are no longer considered as threats and the ban was lifted,” she added.
They had been placed on the bureau’s blacklist last June because they were considered a “threat to public safety” following “acts committed against the president” at the Bali summit.
