Taiwan expresses regret over detention of reporters by China

Taiwan expresses regret over detention of reporters by China

Taiwan expressed "regret" Sunday night over the brief detention of two Taiwanese reporters by Chinese police when they were covering news related to the "Jasmine movement" in downtown Beijing in the afternoon.

Taiwan 's government spokesman Johnny Chi-chen Chiang also urged Beijing to respect journalists' rights of covering and reporting news events and to avoid similar incident from happening again in the future.

Two Taiwanese reporters with a local TV station were briefly taken away by police at 1: 50 p.m. from Wangfujing Street where they were covering possible gathering of protesters in response to website calls a new wave of the "Jasmine movement" in China .

The two Taiwanese were brought to a police station for interrogation and were released at around 6 p.m. after Beijing 's Taiwan Affairs Office officials intervened at the request of Taiwan 's Mainland Affairs Council, according to Chiang.

Chiang said that President Ma Ying-jeou, has been concerned about the incident, and has instructed the related government agencies to accordingly address the matter and to safeguard the freedom of press.

Meanwhile, Taiwan 's lawmakers across the party lines asked Beijing to offer "a clear explanation" of the incident.

ENDS

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