EBC News (東森新聞) has not sought government assistance to retrieve two of its reporters who remain in custody in China after filming Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises earlier this month, a source said yesterday.
They were covering the PLA’s “united sword” drills around Taiwan from April 8 to Monday last week.
CONFRONTATION
Photo: AFP
On the second day of the drills, the reporters on Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, the Chinese island closest to Taiwan proper, were establishing a connection with the news anchor when they were approached by a PLA soldier asking to see their credentials.
The soldier could be heard in the footage saying: “I just need to make sure you’re not a spy.”
EBC yesterday said the reporters are safe and have been in daily communication with the news division.
Photo: Screen grab from YouTube
They are in Xiamen “conducting business” and do not have plans to return at the moment, it said.
‘RESTRICTED RESIDENCE’
However, a person with knowledge of the matter said the reporters were taken into custody by Chinese authorities and were under “restricted residence.”
Although EBC said they have been in contact with the reporters, their actual status is unknown, the source said, adding that the government believes they are being kept from leaving Xiamen.
Their families have not contacted the Mainland Affairs Council or the Straits Exchange Foundation to help secure their release, they said.
DISAPPEARED
Unauthorized filming of PLA activities can result in serious repercussions.
Morrison Lee (李孟居), an unpaid adviser to Pingtung County’s Fangliao Township (枋寮), went missing in 2019 after sending photographs and footage of Chinese paramilitary police amassing on the border between Shenzhen and Hong Kong to the Fangliao mayor.
The state-run China Central Television later broadcast footage of Lee confessing to working as a spy. He was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison, and deprived of political rights for two years.
Although his sentence is over, he has still been unable to return to Taiwan.
The cases should serve as a reminder to Taiwanese reporters that they must be careful when working in China, which does not have freedom of the press, the source said.
Additional reporting by Lin Hsin-ying
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