TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — In response to news that a prominent BBC reporter is making a hasty relocation from China to Taiwan amid threats from China's authorities, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Thursday (April 1) welcomed the journalist and all media from around the world to "enjoy freedom of speech and interviews in our country."
On Wednesday (March 31), China's state-run mouthpiece the Global Times announced that BBC correspondent John Sudworth had left China and "is now believed to be hiding in Taiwan" amid threats of lawsuits over his coverage of alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang. That same day, the BBC confirmed that Sudworth had relocated to Taiwan after he had "exposed the truths the Chinese authorities did not want the world to know."
During a press conference on Thursday, MOFA Spokesperson Joanne Ou (歐江安) responded to Sudworth's relocation by pointing out Taiwan is a free and democratic country that has a pluralistic and open society. "We highly uphold the universal values of freedom of the press and human rights," Ou said.
She added that media from all over the world are welcome to come to Taiwan to conduct interviews and set up offices to enjoy "our nation's freedom of speech and press freedom." She pledged that MOFA will provide assistance to all international media outlets that plan to be stationed in Taiwan.
The spokesperson emphasized that Taiwan's environment is "friendly, safe, and transparent and has a thriving, professional, and dedicated multimedia [industry]." She expressed confidence that upon their arrival, "Mr. Sudworth and his family will find Taiwan to be very different."
According to Ou, there are 126 journalists from 72 foreign media outlets now in Taiwan. As for the recent influx of reporters amid the pandemic and rising tensions between China and Western countries, Ou said that from January 2020 to March of this year, there were 21 new international media outlets and 39 foreign reporters who set up operations in Taiwan for the first time.
She said that notable examples include the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the BBC, among other important global media outlets. Ou concluded that this proves that Taiwan is "a beacon of freedom and democracy."
