The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the Association of Taiwan Journalists (ATJ), have called on the United Nations and its affiliate organisations to respect press freedom and allow unrestricted access to all journalists regardless of nationality.

The IFJ stratement comes in the wake of two accredited journalists from Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) being denied entry to the ongoing World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva on May 22, with World Health Organisation (WHO) event staff allegedly claiming ‘pressure from China’ as the reason behind the refusal.