MB Civic

Free Tibet Campaign

(London)China has unveiled alarming new
plans governing coverage of the 2008
Games to more than 300 journalists from 93
international news organisations earlier
this week. At a first Olympics press briefing
in Beijing , Liu Qi, mayor of Beijing and
president of the organising Committee
BOCOG, and Sun Weijia, Olympics Press
Chief promised “good working conditions”
for foreign journalists. It was also revealed,
however, that China would bar sensitive
material on concerns such as human rights
violations. A list of items not allowed to be
brought into the country was also
announced including “print products and
CD-ROMs which are harmful to China’s
politics, economy and culture.”

In a move clearly designed to placate the
Chinese authorities, the International
Olympic Committee’s (IOC) press
commission chief, Kevan Gosper, asked
journalists “to respect the conditions and
rules” in place in China.

“The IOC’s infamous pledge that giving the
Games to China would improve the human
rights situation there in the run up to the
2008 Games is in ruins” said Matt
Whitticase of Free Tibet Campaign. “In
2002 Jacques Rogge (1) said he would act if
China failed to protect rights to his
satisfaction in the run up to the Games(2).
Instead, Mr Gosper’s latest statement
suggests the IOC is colluding with China in
preventing journalists from covering
China’s ongoing and serious human rights
violations in China and Tibet, a key
component of the overall coverage of the
Beijing 2008 Games. It is particularly
damaging that the IOC should encourage
journalists to censor themselves precisely
at the time when China is cracking down
on the ability of domestic and foreign
journalists to report sensitive news in China.”

In the last year the Chinese leadership has
drastically curtailed media freedoms in
China. Journalists have been harassed and
arrested, tens of thousands employed to
police internet use and new legislation
drafted to criminalise all publications
deemed not to be in the national interest.
The Foreign Correspondents Club in Beijing has received reports of 72 incidents
of harassment of journalists from 15
countries. And earlier this month China
announced through Xinhua, the official
state media outlet, tough new restrictions
on the distribution of foreign news inside
China.

Contact: 020 7324 4605 Matt Whitticase /07904 063746 or Ya’el Weisz-Rind  077 3339 1773

Notes to Editor:

(1) Jacques Rogge is President of the International Committee. (2) His
comments were made in 2002 in an interview on BBC’s Hardtalk programme.