Two correspondents from the Xinhua News Agency made history
Thursday as the first mainland correspondents allowed to reside
temporarily in Taiwan to gather news.
Journalists Fan Liqin and Chen Binhua started their historic
mission in Taipei, turning a new page in media exchanges between
the two sides of the Taiwan Straits.
Observers believe the trip will boost mutual understanding and
ultimately strengthen the ties between the two sides.
In
a report filed from Taipei Thursday, Fan and Chen said the road to
opening up press exchanges across the Straits has been rocky for
the past 13 years. Their presence in Taiwan was the result of the
efforts by media persons on both sides of the Straits, they
wrote.
The two reporting positions are set to rotate on a regular
basis.
The media exchange was nonexistent until September 1987, when two
correspondents from Taiwan's Independent Evening newspaper began
their visit to the mainland via Japan, the first trip to the
mainland by Taiwan correspondents since 1949.
One correspondent from Xinhua and another from the China News
Agency became the first mainland journalists to enter Taiwan for
news coverage in 42 years when they went to the island in August
1991 to cover an incident caused by a fishery dispute across the
Straits.
In
May of 1992, a joint media group from both the mainland and Taiwan
visited the Three Gorges region on the Yangtze River, marking the
first joint media coverage by correspondents from the two sides in
decades.
Four months later, a group of 18 mainland correspondents visited
Taiwan in a move seen as the official beginning of media exchanges
between the two sides. In September 1994, leading figures of 16
major media organizations in Taiwan visited the mainland.
Five years ago, the mainland, for the first time in decades, began
to allow Taiwan correspondents into the mainland on a rotating
basis to cover news.
To
date, seven media organizations in Taiwan have sent journalists to
the mainland on a rotating basis, and a total of about 5,000 Taiwan
correspondents have visited the mainland; about 200 mainland
correspondents have visited Taiwan.
During the past few years, exchanges between Taiwan and mainland
media organizations have been on the rise in the form of mutual
visits, and co-production of TV programs and co-sponsoring of
conferences.
People are pleased to see more and more press exchanges between the
two sides, wrote Fan and Chen, and reporters have been working to
promote the exchange.
On
the part of the mainland, government departments and leaders have
also worked actively to promote the exchange, the two
correspondents said.
Vice-Premier Qian Qichen reiterated last June the government's
position on this matter when meeting visiting leaders of Taiwan
media organizations.
At
the meeting, Qian also called on Taiwan media organizations to play
a greater role in promoting cross-Straits press exchanges.
The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, which approves
applications from Taiwan correspondents for coverage in the
mainland, has simplified the approval process in the past few
years.
But fewer mainland correspondents have been allowed to visit Taiwan
than vice versa, Fan and Chen pointed out.
They wrote that the process of approving mainland journalists'
applications is still complicated and there are unreasonable
restrictions in related regulations of the Taiwan authorities.
According to some Taiwan media comments, Thursday's trip to Taiwan
by mainland correspondents should have taken place a decade ago,
which observers say reflected the wishes of journalists at the two
sides of the Straits.
Though mainland reporters are allowed to reside temporarily in
Taiwan for new coverage, media people across the Straits are still
expecting more two-way exchanges so that they can play their role
in improving the understanding between the two sides and promoting
the development of the cross-Straits relations as a whole,
according to Fan and Chen.
(Xinhua 02/09/2001)