European journalist with Taiwan’s FTV banned from covering WHO activities

European journalist with Taiwan’s FTV banned from covering WHO activities

2024-05-24

The World Health Assembly opens on Monday in Geneva. In the past, Taiwanese journalists have been unable to get press accreditation as Taiwan is not a United Nations member. This year, FTV tried a new tactic. To cover the event, it hired longtime Taiwan advocate and YouTuber Stan Kwiatkowski [qui-KOW-ski], known on social media as "Stan from Poland." Still the results were the same.

Member of staff
United Nations
Sorry, what media is that?

Stan Kwiatkowski
YouTuber
It’s Formosa TV.

Member of staff
United Nations
From Taiwan?

Stan Kwiatkowski
YouTuber
Yes, the company is from Taiwan. I am from Poland and they are hiring me to report.

Polish YouTube star Stan Kwiatkowski was hired to be FTV’s foreign correspondent to cover the meeting of the World Health Assembly. However, his press accreditation was rejected. His rejection letter came from the U.N.’s Geneva office, so he decided to call them and clarify the reasoning behind this decision.

Member of staff
United Nations
Because we can only accredit journalists who have got a nationality and a letter of accreditation from media that belongs to a country recognized by the General Assembly.

In the past, the U.N. has stipulated that journalists need to have the nationality of member states and has refused entry to Taiwanese reporters. This time, even though the U.N. had no objections to a journalist from Poland, Kwiatkowski was still rejected, as his media company came from Taiwan, which is not recognized by the U.N. General Assembly.

Stan Kwiatkowski
YouTuber
Why do you leave Taiwanese people behind? Why do you leave people from that country behind? That means they don’t have access to the most fresh information, right?

Every year, Taiwanese officials, NGOs or media, do their best to join the WHA but are ultimately turned away. Kwiatkowski, was born and raised in Poland, and studied Chinese at National Chengchi University in 2009. After marrying his Taiwanese wife, he moved back to Poland for family reasons. But even 8,715 kilometers away, he’s continued to create video content to make Taiwan’s voice be heard.

Stan Kwiatkowski
YouTuber
They just place some conditions on you that you can’t possibly meet and then suppress you in that way. In this way, the rights of Taiwan’s 23 million people are being suppressed like this by an organization that not a single person has elected and has nothing to do with public opinion. I think these kinds of situations are really bad.

“Health for All” is the goal of the WHO. However, given its unfavorable treatment of Taiwan, this promise for many Taiwanese seems hollow.

For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53