FOCAP slams blacklisting of HK journalists

MANILA, Philippines - The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) said the blacklisting of nine Hong Kong journalists over an unclear definition of “public safety threat” sends a chilling message to the members of the press all over the world.

“While governments have the prerogative to deny entry to foreigners, we would like to clarify from the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) as well as the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) what particular actions served as basis to declare these journalists a public safety threat, which eventually led to the blacklisting,” FOCAP said in a statement.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) office earlier confirmed that the nine Hong Kong journalists, who were not identified, were blacklisted upon the recommendation of NICA that they committed acts against President Aquino during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bali, Indonesia in 2013.

The Philippines will host the APEC summit next year.

The manner of the questioning of the journalists about the bus hostage crisis supposedly irked Aquino and Malacañang officials said the journalists “crossed the line.”

BI spokeswoman Elaine Tan said showing “disrespect or makes offensive utterances to symbols of Philippine authority” is already sufficient basis to ban an individual.

“FOCAP believes that an intelligence agency’s declaration of a journalist as a public safety threat – based only on his/her conduct of asking questions of the President and without a single complaint from either the foreign affairs department or the press office of the Office of the President, both political offices more adept at dealing with the press – gives a chilling message to journalists worldwide: If the government’s intelligence agency does not the like the way you ask questions, you may be labeled a public safety threat and blacklisted from the Philippines,” the organization said.

FOCAP said the Philippine government should clarify as to what manner of questioning the president constitutes a public threat, noting that this is the first time a journalist has been barred from entering the country for conduct that is connected to his duties as a journalist.