Two Mainland Reporters Expelled for Making Political Content
News Compiled and Reported by Taiwan Weekly
Because reporters Ai Kezhu and Lu Qiang of China’s Southeast Television made political talk show content in Taiwan, they were accused of violating relevant regulations. Taiwan revoked their journalist credentials and entry permits, and they left Taiwan by plane on July 3.
The Mainland Affairs Council pointed out on July 2 that the Southeast Television had rented studios and invited Taiwanese political pundits to produce the program “Strait Express”, and these activities did not conform to the applied purposes of the two reporters in Taiwan. According to the Act Governing Cross-Strait Relations, the relevant agencies revoked their credentials and entry permits and ordered them to leave on July 3.
The Ministry of Culture stated that Southeast Television has established studios in Taiwan, and the two reporters had acted as hosts of the programs in addition to producing the programs. Their activities clearly violated the purpose of news reporting they had applied for. And since their credentials would expire soon, so they were asked to leave. At the present time, 10 mainland Chinese news media are operating in Taiwan, including Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, and China Central Television. The Ministry of Culture will continue to monitor whether they have violated rules.
On July 4, Premier Su Tseng-chang stated that Taiwan welcomes reporters from all countries, but if their scopes of work do not conform to what were applied for, Taiwan’s laws and regulations have restrictions. Su said the reporters’ credentials and entry permits would have expired and were not renewed, so it was just right for them to leave Taiwan.
Reporter Ai Kezhu stated at the Taoyuan Airport that she was covering news at Lishan when receiving notice to leave within 48 hours, and she was surprised and regretful. She said that she came to Taiwan in 2012 and had not exceeded the applied scope of work. She had only interviewed people and had not commented on the political talk shows. She had not expressed her personal views on any specific matters. But since the relevant agencies had made decisions, they had faced the rulings and complied.
The “Strait Express” had been produced by Southeast Television for 12 years. It was an evening political talk show, the host in mainland China’s studio would first make introductions and stated the topics, and the reporters in Taiwan would continue to host the show by inviting guests, mostly opposition Blue camp pundits to comment on Taiwan’s politics.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Chih-wei said recently that the government should ban political programs made by Chinese government media in Taiwan which denigrates Taiwan and revoke such reporters’ entry permits. Taiwan State-Building Party Legislator Chen Po-wei also asked the Executive Yuan to pay attention to the phenomenon that Chinese media have used Taiwanese to scold Taiwanese. Because of the above actions, the Executive Yuan began to look at this problem squarely.
Adjunct Professor Cheng Tzu-lung of the College of Communications, National Chengchi University, said that freedom of news gathering is a universal value, and restricting mainland Chinese media in gathering news in Taiwan clearly violates freedom of press. If news media cannot criticize Taiwan’s government in Taiwan, then what is the difference between this ban and the inability to criticize leaders in Beijing?
Mainland China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Spokesperson Zhu Fenglian stated that the DPP authorities have adopted every means to restrict and obstruct cross-strait communications and cooperation, now they are targeting the normal news reporting by mainland Chinese journalists in Taiwan, thus severely damaging the rights of mainland journalists. Zhu said this move exposed that DPP was fake in upholding the so-called press freedom and should stop the moves immediately, otherwise the DPP will bear all consequences that have incurred.
DPP Spokeswoman Yen Juo-fang rebutted by saying that it is ridiculous that a country (referring to China) without free press would dare to criticize Taiwan’s free press.