Sydney, Australia - A newspaper sympathetic to the Falun Gong spiritual movement Friday said it has been accredited to cover the upcoming APEC leaders summit, in a move likely to anger the Chinese delegation.
Epoch Times journalist Shar Adams said she had been cleared to cover the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum which will be attended by Chinese President Hu Jintao.
APEC officials refused to comment on individual accreditation but said that Australia enjoyed freedom of the media and any legitimate journalists who passed strict security checks would have been considered to cover the summit.
The discussion about accrediting the Epoch Times, which has previously been denied APEC access, was reportedly taken to the highest levels of the Australian government.
Adams said her newspaper, which publishes from cities around the world, regularly ran articles highly critical of the Chinese government, including the alleged persecution of Falun Gong supporters.
"Epoch Times covers Falun Gong issues because that's really the greatest human rights atrocity happening in China," she told AFP.
"It's not frightened to be critical of China, and we cover a range of human rights abuses in China."
Adams, who confirmed she had been accredited to cover the September 2-9 APEC Leaders' Week, said there was no reason why Epoch Times journalists should be denied the chance to cover the meetings.
Falun Gong, which was outlawed as an "evil cult" by China in 1999, has planned several protests during the summit.