May 23, 2023
The 2023 World Health Assembly (WHA) is currently being held at the United Nations Office at Geneva. The United Nations has long denied Taiwanese journalists access to its premises to cover UN-related meetings and activities. This clearly violates the universal values and principles of fairness and justice stipulated in the UN Charter. It also infringes on the fundamental human right guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression . . . through any media and regardless of frontiers.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of the Republic of China (Taiwan) expresses strong discontent at the UN Office at Geneva for not acting impartially and for denying Taiwanese media access to the WHA due to heavy-handed pressure from China. MOFA also strongly condemns the government of China for imposing such pressure and for acting to harm the people of Taiwan while claiming to care for them.
MOFA again solemnly urges the United Nations to give due regard to the Taiwanese media’s basic right to enter UN premises to cover UN meetings and activities. Furthermore, it calls on the United Nations to not abandon its own position by submitting to unreasonable political pressure from a specific country, and to rectify the situation with immediate effect and improve on its discriminatory treatment of the Taiwanese media.