Hong Kong's Commercial Radio criticises Manila for barring reporter covering Apec summit

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A Commercial Radio reporter was barred from the Apec summit in Manila

Published: 12:15am, 18 Nov 2015Updated: 5:50am, 18 Nov 2015

Commercial Radio has expressed strong regret at the Philippine government after it blocked one of its journalists, who was sent to cover the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Manila, from entering the country on Sunday.

The Commercial Radio reporter was among nine Hong Kong journalists who were said to have been on a Philippine government blacklist after some of them asked the country's president, Benigno Aquino, about the 2010 Manila bus hostage tragedy during the Apec summit in Bali, Indonesia two years ago.

The Commercial Radio reporter left Hong Kong for Manila on Sunday morning and was forced to return after being denied entry.

"[Commercial Radio] deeply regrets the move by the Philippine government and finds it incomprehensible," said the station's spokeswoman, adding that the reporter involved had merely registered for Apec in 2013 but was not in the end sent.

The spokeswoman believed the incident was the aftermath of the blacklist saga. She said the broadcaster had sought help from the Hong Kong government in resolving the matter.

Last year, Now TV cameraman Eric Lee Kwok-keung, who had covered the Apec summit in Bali, was turned away at Manila airport where he received a letter, apparently issued by the country's National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, stating that he and eight other journalists should be barred from entering the Philippines to cover Apec this year for "harassing" Aquino. But the presidential media office last year denied there was such a ban.