Authorities do not allow British Epoch Times reporter into country to cover trial of Falungong activists
Straits Times
Thursday, September 28, 2006
By Khushwant Singh
A British journalist who flew in from London on Sunday was denied entry at Changi Airport and asked to leave.
Mr Jaya Gibson works for New York-based The Epoch Times, which is strongly supportive of the Falungong movement.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority said that Mr Gibson was ineligible for a visit pass, but did not give any reason.
He left on Monday.
Mr Gibson was in Singapore last month to cover the trial of two Falungong followers who were charged with displaying insulting words on a banner opposite the Chinese Embassy in Tanglin Road on July 20.
When the trial was adjourned, Mr Gibson left for Geneva to attend a human rights conference, said Mr Sng Beng Kok, a photojournalist with The Epoch Times.
Mr Gibson had also been assisting the Falungong pair's lawyer, Mr M. Ravi, with administrative matters, Mr Sng told Agence France-Presse news agency.
The Epoch Times focuses on reporting alleged human rights abuses by China's Communist Party, especially its crackdown on Falungong, which Beijing outlawed as an "evil cult" in 1999.
The newspaper has been circulating here since 2004.
Mr Ravi has been hospitalised and the two Falungong practitioners on trial have till Monday to decide if they wish to hire a new lawyer.
Date Posted: 9/28/2006
5 comments:
Singapore should keep these trouble makers out they are trying to ruin the Singapore Brand.
Singapore is a Globalised City.
Banning him just adds more fuel to his belief that 'the evil' is out to get him and makes Singapore look bad again on the international stage. Give him no fuel and the matter would slip below the radar of the mass media.
The Singapore government is licking the boots of the brutal Chinese regime...keeping their critics and detractors at bay, unfortunately, at the risk of appearing authoritarian and of having no concept of human rights themselves.
The world is watching and the clampdown on civil society, liberties and the media is not going unnoticed.
the message is "invest here; your money is safe; no troublemakers allowed"
since this is boring, throw in some fun stuff; the old bread and circus idea from Rome
Deep down multinationals want to be in Singapore. Why bother with trouble some unions, worker rights, fair compensation, dissent when the Singapore government is doing a wonderful job and the best is, we do not have the take the bad press. In fact we can seem to be sympathetic by taking a few pot shots at the Singapore government ourselves, just like the WB/IMF chief. They just love us and pappy knows that
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