Philippines bars 9 'undesirable' HK journos - state media

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines has blacklisted the nine Hong Kong journalists who "heckled" President Benigno Aquino III during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit last year, the Hong Kong state media reported on Friday.

Government-run Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) reported that one of the journalists, a cameraman for Now TV, learned about the blacklist through a letter from immigration officers after he was denied entry to the Philippines yesterday.

"The letter said the Office of the President had described the nine journalists as 'undesirable' and barred them from entering the country to cover next year's APEC summit there," the RTHK said in an online report.

In last year's APEC summit in Bali, Indonesia, the Hong Kong journalists questioned Aquino about the Manila hostage crisis in 2010 that killed eight Hong Kong tourists.

Aquino was entering a meeting of APEC business leaders when 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.

In a Hong Kong TV footage, the journalists were seen shouting: "So you're ignoring the Hong Kong people, right?" as they pushed their microphones over the people surrounding Aquino, who declined the answer the questions.

The APEC staff intervened to reprimand the journalists, who were eventually kicked out of the summit.

Then Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang said the Hong Kong journalists "crossed the line" after Aquino was "accosted very rudely and very aggressively."