A UN spokeswoman has rejected criticism by the largest journalists’ organization in the US over the world body’s policy of banning Taiwanese journalists from covering the UN and its affiliates such as the World Health Assembly (WHA).
UN spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters on Thursday that the UN position is that only journalists representing member states are permitted to receive press credentials to cover UN activities.
She was responding to a question at her daily press briefing about a letter the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in May condemning the UN’s rejection of Taiwanese journalists.
The letter was prompted by the UN’s decision — under heavy pressure from China — to ban Taiwanese journalists from covering the May meeting of the WHA in Geneva.
The letter, signed by SPJ president Clint Brewer, called on the UN to let Taiwanese news organizations cover all UN activities.
“To deny legitimate news organizations access to the proceedings of the United Nations and its affiliated organizations does a disservice to the people served by those news organizations as well as the United Nations itself,” the letter said.
It “note[d] with dismay the denial of press credential to the journalists of Taiwan who wish to cover” UN events.
Montas said the 1971 UN resolution that switched China’s UN representation from the Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) regime to Beijing meant that “there was one state and that was the Chinese state,” an argument since disputed by many academics, Taiwanese officials and supporters of Taiwan in the US.
Montas said that the criteria for UN media accreditation is that “journalists wishing to be accredited must hold a valid passport from a state recognized by the United Nations General Assembly.’”
Since Taiwan is not a member, she said, its journalists cannot be accredited to cover the organization.
Notice of the SPJ’s letter appeared in the current issue of the group’s publication, The Quill, which went out this week, and which apparently prompted the question on Thursday, Quill editor Joe Skeel said.
The letter represented the association’s long-term concern over the UN’s banning of Taiwanese journalists, Skell said, adding that SPJ presidents, who are named for one-year terms, have regularly sent similar letters about Taiwanese journalists to the UN for several years.
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