HK reporters heckle Noy, get APEC boot

BALI – Hong Kong journalists were kicked out of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit here for heckling President Aquino Sunday.

APEC host Indonesia yesterday denied stifling press freedom after withdrawing the accreditation of the nine journalists for shouting questions at Aquino, insisting they had posed a security threat.

“They forced themselves in trying to get an interview with the President. As a former journalist, I know what it’s like to aggressively question a subject. They had crossed an ethical boundary,” Secretary Ricky Carandang, head of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, told Manila-based reporters at the Melia Hotel here.

“The behavior of these reporters crossed the line from mere questioning to heckling, and was even construed by Indonesian security personnel assigned to the President as a potential physical threat to him,” Carandang said.

He said the journalists questioned Aquino about a hostage incident in Manila that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead in 2010.

Aquino and Peru President Ollanta Humala were at the nearby Westin Hotel here when the Hong Kong journalists created a commotion.

As Aquino entered a meeting of APEC business leaders, the reporters demanded to know whether he would meet with Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying in Bali and apologize to the families of the hostage crisis victims.

A Hong Kong TV footage showed the journalists shouting: “So you’re ignoring the Hong Kong people, right?” and “Have you met CY Leung” as they pushed their microphones over the people surrounding Aquino.

Aquino did not answer the questions, and APEC staff intervened to admonish the journalists, with one accusing the reporters of “ambushing one of our visitors.”

Carandang said the President remained calm during the commotion and proceeded to his meeting.

He said Indonesian security prevented the journalists from getting close to the President.

The Palace official refused to say whether Aquino would join next year’s APEC summit in China.

“Let’s not speculate on what we will do next year,” he told Filipino journalists.

The Philippines will host the APEC summit in 2015.

Gatot Dewa Broto, the Indonesian communications ministry official in charge of the APEC media center in Bali, said the press badges of nine Hong Kong journalists had been deactivated.

They were free to remain in Bali, but could no longer access the media center or venues being used for the APEC summit, the official said.

Sham Yee-lan, chair of the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association, said Aquino’s government had “yet to provide a satisfactory explanation” for the death of the Hong Kong nationals in a botched police rescue.

She said that the journalists in Bali were doing their job.

“The barring of the media for asking critical questions is an outright infringement of press freedom that is totally unacceptable,” she said in a statement.

Now TV said its journalists were “only engaged in normal reporting duties” and urged intervention from the Hong Kong government, which is one of APEC’s 21 members. There was no immediate comment on the incident from Hong Kong’s delegation at APEC.

Palace hits ‘rude’ HK journalists

Malacañang yesterday slammed the Hong Kong journalists who shouted at Aquino, and compared them to Filipino reporters who follow protocol.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the Indonesian security personnel took the appropriate measures when they revoked the passes of the Hong Kong reporters.

“You have seen in the video that what they did was not civil,” Lacierda said.

“We Filipinos do not shout when asking questions. We observe protocol. We observe the proper way of interviewing anyone, especially heads of state,” he added.

Lacierda declined to comment when asked whether the incident could be considered an insult to Filipinos.

“I don’t want to comment on that because it might, you know, unnecessarily cause further tension between Hong Kong and the Philippines,” he said.

He said the government has no plans to declare the shouting journalists as persona non grata. –With Alexis Romero