Media rights are thorny issue for China's Olympics

Aileen McCabe, CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, November 07, 2007
 
Pressure is building on the International Olympic Committee to make China live up to the commitments it made to allow free and open media coverage before and during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
 
Just 10 months before 20,000 foreign journalists descend on Beijing to cover the Games, Human Rights Watch called on the IOC Tuesday to stop ignoring the abuses of media freedom in China that are being documented and reported with alarming frequency.
 
The plea comes less than two weeks after the Committee to Protect Journalists made a similar demand on the IOC, noting 29 domestic journalists are currently imprisoned in China, essentially for doing their jobs.
 
"The IOC's reluctance to challenge the Chinese government's ongoing violations of media freedoms is at odds with the Olympic charter's dedication to 'ethical principles' and 'preservation of human dignity,' said Sophie Richardson, deputy Asia director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
 
When China's Olympic bid was accepted in 2001, the Beijing government promised that foreign and domestic media would be able to work without restrictions.
 
In January, it issued new guidelines for foreign reporters in China, allowing them to freely travel and work in most areas of the country without first obtaining government permission -- but only until the Olympics and Special Olympics are over.
 
The new rules do not apply to the Chinese assistants and translators who work with most foreign journalists, nor to China's own reporters.
 
Moreover, there have been several incidents reported where police have ignored the rules and harassed and detained foreign media covering stories around the country.
 
The IOC keeps a close eye on the preparations for any Games and Richardson noted that it is paying particular attention to the pollution in Beijing.
 
 
© The Calgary Herald 2007