In regard to your article concerning the UN banning Taiwanese journalists ("Head of journalist group slams UN," May 10, page 4), I submit the following: Recently, the group Reporters Without Borders challenged the government's decision that reporters from Xinhua News Agency and the People's Daily would be banned from Taiwan for, as Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) explained, contributing to misunderstandings between Taiwan and China.
Reporters Without Borders argued that "The right to news and information should in no circumstances be compromised because of political differences."
Unfortunately, they have this perfectly backwards. It is China, not Taiwan, that compromises the right to news and information because of political differences.
It seems that Reporters Without Borders holds the position that the official propaganda wing of an authoritarian state is no different than, say, the Taipei Times.
Now we learn that the UN is blocking Taiwanese journalists from covering the World Health Organization because, with an explanation so contrived it could only come from the UN, they will provide press credentials only to those journalists from recognized member states.
Where are these so called Reports Without Borders on this one? Should not their principle that the right to news and information should in no circumstances be compromised because of political differences equally apply to the UN?
If Reporters Without Borders continues to remain silent on the rights of Taiwanese journalists, the only thing worse than their selective outcry for journalistic freedom is that the banning of journalists by the UN is no shock at all.
Aaron Shafer
New York City
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