China said yesterday a goodwill gesture by Taiwan last week easing open the door to mainland journalists did not go far enough and called for greater media access to the island.
Taipei still imposed unnecessary restraints on visiting mainland journalists, the official Xinhua news agency quoted an unidentified official from the All-China Journalists' Association as saying.
"Compared to the rules on Taiwan reporters coming to interview on the mainland, there are many unreasonable restrictions which cause mainland journalists visiting Taiwan problems with applications, registration, accreditation and interviews," he said.
"This is not in the interest of cross-strait news exchanges and benign interaction."
Taiwan journalists had been on more than 5,000 reporting trips to the mainland in the last few years, while mainland reporters had visited Taiwan only about 200 times, he said.
China had also given seven Taiwan news organizations permission to send journalists to the mainland on a rotating basis, while mainland reporters were given access to the island only on a case by case basis, the official said.
Under Taiwan's new rules, journalists from the mainland would be allowed to cover news in Taiwan and stay for up to one month in designated areas, the Government Information Office and the Mainland Affairs Council said last week.
Taiwan has offered Beijing a series of goodwill gestures since the DPP's Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) became president in May but Beijing has largely ignored them.
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