The Philippine immigration bureau lifted a ban against nine Hong Kong-based journalists after facing criticism from the media and the HK government, according to Stars and Stripes.

A TV cameraman along with broadcasters from RTHK and Commercial Radio HK were denied entry at Manila airport last Thursday.

According to an order issued in June, they had been blacklisted from entering the country and covering next year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the Philippines.

The ban was ordered because the journalists had heckled Philippine President Benigno Aquino III at the APEC summit last year in Indonesia.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association said that the journalists were just asking Aquino for comments on the 2010 killing of eight Hong Kong tourists taken hostage by a gunman in Manila.

It added that the blacklisting was “a blemish on the reputation of the Philippines as a democratic nation”

Hong Kong’s government had also expressed concern earlier and said it would follow up on the matter with the Philippine Consulate General.

The immigration bureau said that order was lifted by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency because no untoward incident transpired this year during Aquino’s visit to China for the APEC summit two weeks ago.