2008

13

Aug

Crackdown continues for Chinese human rights activists, with no Olympic truce during games

The start of the Olympic Games has done nothing to help Chinese human rights activists, who continue to be arrested, watched or threatened. At the same time, incidents involving foreign journalists, including an attack today on a British TV reporter working for ITN, shows that the security services are still preventing the foreign press from working freely.

To illustrate this, Reporters Without Borders today offers the comments of a foreign reporter about surveillance and harassment by the Chinese police.

“In view of the many incidents, we call on the International Olympic Committee to intercede on behalf of the Chinese citizens who are in danger because of the position they have taken during the Olympic Games,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“It is the duty of the Olympic movement in its entirety to ensure respect for the spirit of the Olympic truce,” the organisation added. “Since the origins of the Olympics, tradition has required that peace should prevail during the games.”
The IOC website has this to say about the Olympic truce in ancient Greece: “During the truce period, the athletes, artists and their families, as well as ordinary pilgrims, could travel in total safety to participate in or attend the Olympic Games and return afterwards to their respective countries. (…) The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to revive the ancient concept of the Olympic Truce with the view (…) to encourage searching for peaceful and diplomatic solutions to the conflicts around the world.”

John Ray of the British television news service ITN was today covering a protest by several foreign activists who unfurled a pro-Tibet banner near Beijing’s main Olympic zone, when he was arrested by police, dragged along the ground and forcibly restrained for about 20 minutes although he identified himself as a journalist. “This was an assault in my mind, I am incredibly angry about this,” Ray told Agence France Presse.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) says there have been five incidents since 7 August. In one of these incidents, police arrested two Associated Press reporters in the northwestern province of Xinjiang and erased the photos they had taken. One of them was arrested while watching the opening ceremony on TV. Two Scandinavian journalists were prevented from interviewing peasants in Hebei province about the impact of the games on their activities.

A European journalist who has been working in Beijing for several years has given Reporters Without Borders a gripping description of what it is like for her and her colleagues in Beijing, and the risks run by Chinese who dare to speak to the foreign press.

“They don’t stop following me, filming me and photographing me,” she said. “I think twice before interviewing Chinese about sensitive issues for fear that they could be arrested (…) Last week several Chinese were arrested after giving me interviews. Firstly, people living in the Qianmen district that is in the process of being renovated. They included a woman in charge of an association of evicted residents who sued the government for not paying them enough compensation. The trial began in July but was postponed because of the Olympics. I interviewed her, as other journalists did. Since then she has been detained.

“The same thing happened with the pastor of an unrecognised church. Finally, a British woman of Tibetan origin was arrested and expelled after giving me an interview. Under these circumstances, we are all forced to censor ourselves and to refuse to interview certain Chinese for fear of their being immediately arrested. We are all in this situation of intimidation, which makes it very hard for us to work in China, despite the overall improvements.

“What’s more, the official media have not stopped attacking us since last March’s events in Tibet. In addition to the death threats received by dozens of foreign journalists, the Chinese media try to undermine our credibility. And all of this gained pace in the run-up to the games.”

She is right about Chinese being arrested for talking to the foreign media. Zhang Wei, a former resident of the Beijing district of Qianmen, was arrested on 9 August after filing a request for permission to protest about her family’s eviction two years ago to make way for Olympic construction. The Associated Press quotes her son as saying she is to be held for a month for “disrupting the social order.” The Public Security Bureau said it was looking at her case and had no other comment to make.

Other Chinese are being hounded by the authorities, who fear they could protest during the games. There has been no news since 7 August of Zeng Jinyan, the wife of imprisoned activist Hu Jia, and their seven-month-old daughter. Her mother in law said to several Chinese-language news outlets say she may has been forced her to leave the capital. She had been under permanent police surveillance for several years in the “Freedom” residential area where she lives.

Some Beijing intellectuals such as Liu Xiaobo and Yu Jie have not been detained, but are under police surveillance. Wan Yanhai, the head of an NGO that cares for AIDS sufferers, chose to leave Beijing during the games to avoid being harassed by the police.

Hua Huiqi, the head of an unrecognised protestant church, was arrested in Beijing on 9 August while on his way to a church service that was attended by US President George W. Bush. His brother - arrested at the same time but freed a few hours later - says he has had no news of Hua since then. The police deny ever arresting Hua and claim they had no role in his disappearance. Human Rights in China meanwhile says it got a short letter in which Hua apparently recounts his arrest and subsequent escape.

Ji Sizun, a human rights activist form Fujian province, was arrested on 11 August for filing a request several days earlier for permission to demonstrate in one for the areas designated by the Beijing authorities for protests. Human Rights Watch says Ji wanted to organise a rally to protest against corruption and to call for more citizen participation in government decisions.

According to HRW, several other Chinese have been arrested or threatened for filing demonstration requests. They include relatives of children killed in the collapse of “tofu” (shoddily-built) schools in the May earthquake in Sichuan. The Washington Post reports that families were prevent from boarding flights in the Sichuan capital of Chengdu.

Several members of the outlawed China Democracy Party were arrested in the days preceding the games opening ceremony. According to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Xie Changfa of Hunan province was arrested on 2 August, while Wang Rongqing, 65, of Zhejiang province was arrested on 31 July. They have been charged with inciting subversion of state authority.

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2008

8

Aug

Clandestine FM radio broadcast today in Beijing by Reporters Without Borders, hours before Olympic opening ceremony

Members of Reporters Without Borders today broadcast “Radio Without Borders,” China’s only independent FM radio station, in Beijing just hours before the start of the Olympic Games opening ceremony. In a programme lasting 20 minutes, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard and Chinese human rights activists called on the Chinese government to respect free speech.

“The Chinese authorities refused to issue visas to ten of our members but this has not stopped us from making ourselves heard in Beijing by means of a clandestine radio broadcast using miniaturised FM transmitters and antennas,” Ménard said. “Reporters Without Borders devised and carried out this protest in a spirit of resistance against state control of the media.”

The press freedom organisation added: “This is the first non-state radio station to have broadcast in China since the Communist Party took power in 1949. Only international Chinese-language radio stations broadcasting on the short wave would be able to break this news and information monopoly, but they are jammed by the authorities.”
The Radio Without Borders broadcast began at 08:08 local time on 08/08/08 on 104.4 FM, exactly 12 hours before the start of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games. The programme, in English, French and Mandarin, was heard in on 104.4 FM in different districts of the Chinese capital.

In his introduction, Ménard described the broadcast as a “gesture of defiance towards the Chinese authorities, who are still keeping dozens and dozens of journalists and Internet users in prison.” Addressing the authorities, Ménard said: “Despite everything, there are people who are going to be able to speak out about things you don’t want the public to hear, in the very heart of Beijing. Regardless of the measures you take, you will not get rid of free speech.”

Ménard then urged the Chinese authorities to release prisoners of conscience and stop jamming the frequencies used by international radio stations broadcasting in Chinese. “You banned us from going to Beijing, you expelled us from China. But despite all that, we are here, making our voice heard peacefully, in a completely non-violent fashion. It is a way of saying censorship just won’t work.”

The broadcast included interviews with Chinese human rights activists who have found refuge abroad. A former journalist talked about the censorship and self-censorship that is imposed on her colleagues still in China. A human rights activist described the crackdown on Chinese activists in the run-up to the Olympics.
A former political prisoner described the appalling conditions in which he was held. “External pressure is essential to improve the situation of political prisoners,” Yang Jianli said. Finally the director of Boxun, a US-based, Chinese-language website that is still blocked in China, talked about what motivates the site’s volunteer contributors inside China who, despite the risks, post reports on the social and political situation.

Listen the programme on http://www.rsf.org/ or http://olympicgames.rsfblog.org/

Source: RSF

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2008

30

Jul

International Olympic Committee unable to guarantee press freedom during games

The Chinese authorities confirmed today that the 20,000 foreign journalists covering the Olympic Games will not have unrestricted access to the Internet during their stay. International Olympic Committee media chief Kevan Gosper nonetheless yesterday said the IOC’s key concern was to “ensure that the media are able to report on the games as they did in previous games.”

Reporters Without Borders condemns the cynicism of the Chinese authorities, who have yet again lied, and the IOC’s inability to prevent this situation because of its refusal to speak out for several years.

“Yet another broken promise!” the press freedom organisation said. “Coming just nine days before the opening ceremony, this is yet another provocation by the Chinese authorities. This situation increases our concern that there will be many cases of censorship during the games. We condemn the IOC’s failure to do anything about this, and we are more than sceptical about its ability to ‘ensure’ that the media are able to report freely.”

Sun Weide, the chief spokesman for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), today said the authorities would only guarantee “sufficient” Internet access for accredited media.

The Internet that foreign journalists in China can access is only relatively free. Yesterday, they were unable to access a new Amnesty International report entitled “The Olympic countdown - broken promises” or the websites for many foreign media, such as the BBC’s Chinese-language service, the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, the Hong Kong-based Apple Daily and the Taiwan-based Liberty Time. The Reporters Without Borders website was also inaccessible. All Falungong related websites are also blocked.

Last February, the IOC announced that athletes would be allowed to keep blogs during the games as they were “a legitimate form of personal expression and not a form of journalism” but it said the blogs would have to free of political content.

Source: Reporters Without Borders

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2008

28

Jul

BBC Sport’s Olympics Monkey

This animated sequence, based on the classical Chinese novel, “Journey to the West”, has been produced by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, the men behind virtual band Gorillaz.

It will feature on TV, radio, web and mobile, introducing coverage of the Games on BBC Sport - the Olympic broadcaster in the UK.

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2008

22

Jul

Networks Fight Shorter Olympic Leash from the NY Times

“For several years now NBC has meticulously planned all the details for its coverage of the many sports events at the Summer Olympics in China.

But with the Games only 19 days away, many at the network are concerned about how they will be permitted to cover any unscheduled events, like political protests or government crackdowns — or whether the Chinese government will allow them to cover such things at all.

One of the most common hypothetical questions NBC officials have bandied about involves the opening ceremonies on Aug. 8.

Hundreds of athletes will parade into a stadium in front of world leaders, including President Bush, and a huge global television audience. If an athlete holds a protest sign or waves a Tibetan flag, how will the Chinese hosts react? Will the television networks show the scene? How will the Chinese handle the media for the rest of the Games?

The stakes are high for both the network, which paid $900 million for broadcast rights for the Olympics, and the reputation of NBC News. If it covers any controversies aggressively, it risks drawing the ire of the Chinese and interfering with coverage of sports events. But if it shies from coverage of any protests, NBC risks being criticized in the West for kowtowing to China — particularly since its corporate parent, General Electric, is aggressively expanding its investments in China.

One thing is for sure, vows Steve Capus, the president of NBC’s news division: “If there’s news, we’re going to cover it.”

NBC and other broadcasters have been at odds with Chinese authorities over what, where and when they will be allowed to film. During the last seven years, broadcasters had been assured that they would receive the same freedoms they have had at previous Olympics, but in the last few months, those promises have been contradicted by strict visa rules, lengthy application processes and worries about censorship.

Seeking to defuse growing tension, network executives met face to face two weeks ago with representatives of the International Olympic Committee and Chinese officials. At an eight-hour meeting in the International Broadcast Center in Beijing, the Chinese organizing committee relented slightly, saying that broadcasters like NBC that have paid for rights to the Olympic Games may transmit live from Tiananmen Square — but for only six hours a day, from 6 to 10 a.m. and 9 to 11 p.m.

The broadcasters, which include the BBC in Britain, the CBC in Canada, the Seven Network in Australia and SABC in South Africa, unanimously pressed for further access, according to minutes of the meeting obtained by The New York Times. According to two people at the meeting, when the Beijing vice mayor, Cao Fuchao, remarked that his country’s authorities would not reverse their decision to restrict access, Alex Gilady, an I.O.C. commissioner and NBC vice president, pointed his finger and said: “We still have one month to go. We will pursue this to the end.”

But time is not on the broadcasters’ side. Nineteen days from now, when the torch is lighted in Beijing, journalists and viewers could be facing the most restrictive environment for an Olympics in modern times.

At the meeting, on July 9, after months of uncertainty, Chinese officials said that all applications for live broadcasting would be approved throughout Beijing and the other cities where Olympic competitions were planned. Furthermore, the committee said that all broadcasters could tape reports from Tiananmen Square.

But the broadcasters say they will not believe it until they see it. One I.O.C. commissioner, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid further complicating the situation, said matter-of-factly that Chinese officials had “put a tourniquet” on the Olympics.

“Had the I.O.C., and those vested with the decision to award the host city contract, known seven years ago that there would be severe restrictions on people being able to enter China simply to watch the Olympics, or that live broadcasting from Tiananmen Square would essentially be banned, or that reporters would be corralled at the whim of local security, then I seriously doubt whether Beijing would have been awarded the Olympics,” the commissioner said.

The contentious negotiations are particularly perilous for NBC, part of NBC Universal, which is trying to produce 3,600 hours of coverage. The company paid a record amount for the broadcast rights, and it expects to generate $1 billion in advertising revenue. The coverage will be produced by NBC Sports under the direction of Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics.

But the network could find itself covering news outside the track or swimming pools if there are political protests or another government crackdown. Mr. Capus of NBC acknowledged that these Games were arguably the most newsworthy Olympics in a generation, since they have put a spotlight on China’s environmental problems and human-rights abuses.

He was diplomatic about the recent negotiations. “We are encouraged by the progress that we saw last week, and the potential for the cooperation that has been pledged,” Mr. Capus said.

NBC has good reason to cross its fingers. Its owner, GE, has had its sales in China grow rapidly this decade, to a projected $10 billion by 2010, from around $1 billion in 2000. The company is involved in more than 300 projects related to these Games, including technology for the new National Stadium. Jeffrey R. Immelt, the chief executive of G.E., has said the Olympics will create “decades of good will in China.”

Source: NY Times

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2008

11

Jul

Air Beijing

With a month remaining before the Beijing Olympics, the International Olympic Committee praised the city’s preparations but also cited one “open issue” that remain: whether the city can deliver good air quality.Meanwhile, environmental officials are focused on delivering blue skies, despite recent weeks that have brought unusual amounts of rain mixed with haze. Mr. Verbruggen said local officials briefed the I.O.C. delegation about the city’s contingency plans to improve air quality during the Games by temporarily closing factories in much of northern China and also restricting automobile traffic in Beijing. Beijing officials point to reductions in certain air pollutants and say the city has made measurable progress, even as they agree that more needs to be done. But independent analysts have questioned claims of progress. Earlier this year, Jacques Rogge, the I.O.C. president, cautioned that Beijing might need to postpone the marathon and other endurance events if air quality did not meet certain standards.

Source: NY Times

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2008

8

Jul

Call for demonstrations on 8 of August outside Chinese embassies and online

With exactly one month left before the Olympic Games opening ceremony in Beijing, Reporters Without Borders today condemned the absence of a goodwill gesture from the Chinese government as regards the approximately 100 imprisoned journalists, Internet users and cyber-dissidents.

“Do the Chinese authorities really think they are going to turn these games into an international success by stubbornly refusing to free prisoners of conscience and by gagging freedom of expression,” asked the press freedom organisation, which has been campaigning on this issue since 2001.

Reporters Without Borders is calling for demonstrations outside Chinese embassies during the opening ceremony. It is also organising a cyber-demonstration on its website (www.rsf.org) on the opening day.

“The occasional good news, such as the unblocking of access to certain foreign websites and the reopening of Tibet, have been eclipsed by a series of outrageous arrests and increased surveillance of human rights activists,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The Olympic infrastructure is in place, but police controls have been stepped up, the Internet is still censored, international radio stations are jammed and Beijing’s air is still polluted.”

“All these topics are banned in the Chinese press,” the organisation added. “And the luxury of the Olympic Press Centre that was inaugurated today in Beijing will not help foreign journalists to forget how precarious their rights are when they try to probe sensitive issues,”

Even the resumption of contacts with the Dalai Lama’s representatives is already being seen as a failure as the Chinese authorities are imposing an extravagant list of preconditions for any real dialogue. One of the Tibetan negotiators said on his return from China last week: “Before the Olympics it is not feasible to hold talks… they are obsessed with the Olympics.” The meeting was staged solely for the sake of the Olympics and to satisfy certain foreign countries, he added.

Much of the blame for the present crisis lies with the International Olympic Committee. By closing its eyes to the Chinese government’s repressive policies, the IOC has negated the “positive effect” that the games were supposed to have on human rights in China. The existence of around 10 “Olympic prisoners” such as Hu Jia and Yang Chunlin, who were arrested just for talking about the games, is proof of this.

It is not too late for the world sports movement to speak out on behalf of free expression. The Olympic Charter says that sport should contribute to “the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.”

The relatives of certain imprisoned activists have been calling for a goodwill gesture from the Chinese authorities in the run-up to the games. Xinna, the wife of ethnic Mongolian publisher Hada, who has been detained for the past 13 years, this week appealed to the Chinese government to free her husband in a show of respect of human rights.

Reporters Without Borders has been calling for the past few months for a boycott of the 8 August opening ceremony by heads of state, heads of government and members of royal families.

So far, the government representatives who have announced their acceptance of the Chinese president’s invitation to attend are the king of Cambodia, the presidents of Afghanistan, Croatia, Mauritius, South Korea, Switzerland, United States and Vietnam, the prime ministers of Australia, Finland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands and Thailand, the Spanish foreign minister, the Indian minister of sports and Belgium’s Crown Prince Philippe.

The governments of Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, New Zealand and Poland have announced they will send no representative to the opening ceremony. Britain’s Prince Charles has said he will not go to Beijing while its prime minister will attend only the closing ceremony.

The French president will reportedly tell his Chinese counterpart tomorrow whether he will attend.

Source: RSF

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2008

8

Jul

From Today’s Wall Street Journal

July 7, 2008

In 2001, China’s Communist leaders promised the International Olympic Committee to allow free press access to both the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the country as a whole. So far signs aren’t good that Beijing will stick to its word.

Witness the case of Norman Choy, a senior reporter with Hong Kong’s Apple Daily who was turned away at the Beijing airport on July 1. Mr. Choy intended to cover events related to the Games; he is one of more than 20,000 journalists expected to report on China in relation to the Olympics over the next six weeks. Yet upon landing in Beijing, immigration officials pulled him aside and questioned him about his travel plans. They then confiscated Mr. Choy’s “home return” travel permit - which allows Hong Kong Chinese visa-free access to the mainland - citing national security law, and put him on the next flight home.

Mr. Choy and his editors still await a formal explanation for which section of the law he might have violated. It’s a smart bet Mr. Choy’s “offense” was working for Apple Daily, a vigorously pro-democracy paper that publishes editions in Hong Kong and Taiwan. But he’s not alone. Reporters Without Borders says it’s received several complaints in recent months from European journalists, mostly free-lancers, who are encountering inexplicable snags in applying for visas to enter China around the time of the Games.

This is all part of a nationwide pattern. Whether it’s this spring’s uprising in Tibet or the torch relay in the restive western Xinjiang province, foreign correspondents have run into a wall of official restraints and resistance, as Phelim Kine of Human Rights Watch documents here. Even when Beijing has briefly allowed foreign reporters into trouble spots, such as the areas hit by the Sichuan earthquake in May, it has quickly tamped down again. Reports of various kinds of intimidation all over the country are rife.

Starting tomorrow, the roughly 5,600 journalists accredited to cover the sporting events are supposed to be able to enter using their Olympic press cards in lieu of visas. They will file stories on the athletes and events. But that will be only part of the China story this summer. Beijing promised to allow journalists to cover the rest of it - not least in a new press law issued in December 2006 that was supposed to provide easier nationwide access to foreign reporters. The next few weeks will show whether it intends to keep its word instead of delivering only “press freedom” with Chinese characteristics.

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2008

2

Jul

China and Dalai Lama Talking Again, Sarkozy Says He May Attend Games

French president Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday he might attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics if talks announced Sunday between the Chinese government and representatives of the Dalai Lama make progress.

“If there was continued progress and if the Dalai Lama and the Chinese president acknowledged the progress, then the obstacle to my participation would be lifted,” Sarkozy said on French television, Monday night.

He said the situation in Tibet is “not acceptable” but added, “We absolutely must not push a population of 1.3 billion people into wounded nationalism.”

After the March riots in Tibet and the government crackdown that followed, Sarkozy said he might boycott the opening of the Games.

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2008

30

Jun

Has President Sarkozy decided to break his promise to the French and attend the inauguration of the Olympic Games?

Reports suggest that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has already secretly decided to attend the Olympic Games opening ceremony in Beijing on 8 August, despite his promise to consult his European partners on the subject and to take a decision in accordance with the progress made in the dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama.

“On what basis have you decided to go to Beijing?” Reporters Without Borders asks President Sarkozy. “On the progress in the dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama’s representatives? The dialogue has deadlocked and the recent Lhasa leg of the Olympic torch relay was marked by a new declaration of war by Chinese officials against Tibetans who support the Dalai Lama. On an improvement in human rights in China? Arrests are on the increase and the government has not responded to any of the European requests for the release of prisoners of conscience.

“Mr. President, surely you have not dared to break your promise to attend the opening ceremony only if the Chinese kept their promises? Or have you succumbed to the anti-French demonstrations that were orchestrated by the Chinese government? What a sad image France would present if it were to submit to blackmail by a government that continues to flout its people’s right to express their views!

“As you are to take over the European Union’s rotating presidency tomorrow, you must surely be aware that the European Parliament adopted a resolution on 10 April asking you not to attend this ceremony if the Chinese authorities did not agree to resume a proper dialogue with the Tibetans.”

In April, when repeatedly pressed on the subject, Sarkozy conditioned his attendance at the opening ceremony on a resumption of dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama’s representatives. Meetings did take place but the process has been frozen since May. And when the United States and the European Union recently issued a joint appeal for “results-oriented” talks on Tibet, it was rejected by China as meddling in its internal affairs. The Chinese authorities are also barring foreign journalists from Tibet while massive roundups and reeducation campaigns continue.

There are reports that indicate that Sarkozy may take advantage of the G-8 summit on 8-9 July in Japan to announce to his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, that he will attend the opening ceremony of the games. Several French officials including France’s ambassador in Beijing have told journalists that Sarkozy will be in Beijing on 8 August.

This decision seems to have been taken despite the fact that come EU countries, including Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Austria, have come out in favour of boycotting the opening ceremony.

A petition signed by 6,500 Internet users calling on Sarkozy not to go to Beijing on 8 August has been handed in to the Elysée Palace by Reporters Without Borders. A total of 53 Members of the European Parliament have also signed a similar appeal organised by Reporters Without Borders.
With less than a month and a half to go to the start of the games, around 100 journalists, cyber-dissidents, bloggers and Internet users are still imprisoned in China. The Chinese authorities have never kept the human rights promises they gave in 2001 when Beijing was chosen to host the 2008 games.

Source: RSF

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