MANILA, Philippines -
The Philippines has blacklisted the nine Hong Kong journalists who
"heckled" President Benigno Aquino III during the Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit last year, the Hong Kong state media
reported on Friday.
Government-run Radio
Television Hong Kong (RTHK) reported that one of the journalists, a cameraman
for Now TV, learned about the blacklist through a letter from immigration
officers after he was denied entry to the Philippines yesterday.
"The letter said the
Office of the President had described the nine journalists as 'undesirable' and
barred them from entering the country to cover next year's APEC summit
there," the RTHK said in an online report.
In last year's APEC
summit in Bali, Indonesia, the Hong Kong journalists questioned Aquino about
the Manila hostage crisis in 2010 that killed eight Hong Kong tourists.
Aquino was entering a
meeting of APEC business leaders when the reporters demanded to know whether he
would meet with Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying in Bali and apologize to the
families of the hostage crisis victims.
In a Hong Kong TV
footage, the journalists were seen shouting: "So you're ignoring the Hong
Kong people, right?" as they pushed their microphones over the people
surrounding Aquino, who declined the answer the questions.
The APEC staff
intervened to reprimand the journalists, who were eventually kicked out of the
summit.
Then Communications
Secretary Ricky Carandang said the Hong Kong journalists "crossed the
line" after Aquino was "accosted very rudely and very
aggressively."
Source:http://www.philstar.com/
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