The World Health Organization (WHO) has banned Taiwanese journalists from its annual summit in Geneva.
Authorities overseeing press accreditation for the World Health Assembly (WHA) confirmed yesterday that journalists holding Taiwanese passports would not be permitted to enter the assembly building.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
According to the UN Department of Public Information, the office in charge of accreditation, this year's regulations state that Taiwanese passport holders will not be issued press passes as Taiwan is not a UN member state.
While the regulation is not new to the UN, it is a change to WHA accreditation procedures. In past years, accreditation had been processed by the WHO Media and Communications office and Taiwanese nationality was not a barrier.
"Basically, what's happened is that there has been an increase in security threats to the UN and UN personnel in the last week ? As a result, security of the UN has been increased and made much more strict," WHO spokesman Iain Simpson told the Taipei Times yesterday.
China's role in crafting the regulations was unclear.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Richard Shih (
"All I can say right now is that we are trying to understand the situation," Shih added.
The policy change comes just days before the start of the health summit, which runs from Monday to May 22. While accreditation requirements previously posted on the WHO Web site had not listed a passport photocopy as a necessary item for accreditation, changes were listed online on Tuesday.
Department of Public Information officials insisted the passport regulations were long standing.
"This has always been the case here in Geneva ? these procedures have been around for more than 30 years and will stay like this for quite a while," said Katherine Segli, a department official in charge of journalist accreditation.
She attributed the issuing of press passes to Taiwanese journalists in the past to good fortune.
"You just had some luck in the past," Segli said.
The regulation does not simply bar non-UN members from entry, however.
A Department of Public Information official explained that countries not in the UN but with WHO observer status would be granted press passes. Palestine, the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of Malta have received invitations to participate as observers to the WHA.
"This is an old problem that we've run up against in the past," said Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡), director-general of the Taipei Cultural and Economic mission in Geneva.
"The same regulations have been implemented at the UN building in New York. We're currently negotiating with both the WHO and the UN," Shen said.
According to Shen, while Taiwanese journalists have been barred, a number of Taiwanese government representatives and members of non-governmental organizations will be allowed to listen in on assembly proceedings from the public gallery.
A domestic media organization commented on the issue yesterday.
"The association's stance is that you can't deny coverage of an event by saying that Taiwan is not a member state of the UN," said Tony Liu (
"This is a political move that is biased against Taiwan," Lu said.
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