‘SEEING IS BELIEVING’:President Ma Ying-jeou said that the trip was organized because he wanted international journalists to witness firsthand that Itu Aba is an island, not a rock
Taipei Times
Date: Mar 24, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter
At the invitation of the government, a group of foreign journalists yesterday
Taiwan coast guard secure a C-130 military transport plane on Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island) in the Spratly archipelago (Nansha Islands) about 1,600km south of Taiwan yesterday. Photo: AP
visited Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) in the South China Sea, marking the first time non-Taiwanese reporters have been allowed to set foot on the disputed island.
Among the invited foreign reporters were those from CNN, satellite TV network al-Jazeera, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Associated Press, L’Agence France-Presse, Reuters, Bloomberg, Kyodo news service and the Yomiuri Shimbun.
Staff from 11 local media outlets also joined the tour, including the state-owned Central News Agency, the Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily, Next TV and Radio Taiwan International.
The journalists were accompanied by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruce Linghu (令狐榮達), Presidential Office spokesman Charles Chen (陳以信) and a number of Taiwanese experts and academics. [FULL STORY]
