Olympics competition, long an example of international freedom, opens next month in a country that ruthlessly controls its own citizens.
The summer games in Beijing, China will test a Communist promise that journalists will have “complete freedom” to “unfettered” reporting in print, broadcast and on-line during the Aug. 8-24 events involving 10,500 athletes from 205 countries.
Does that guarantee cover only reporting on sanctioned events in official venues or does it extend to unrelated events in the streets of Beijing and elsewhere?
Unrelated events might include individual or group demonstrations protesting a wide assortment of human-rights abuses by the repressive Chinese regime.
Remember the regime’s brutal crackdown on democracy advocates in Tiananmen Square a few years ago? And consider the festering international outrage about Red China’s recent crackdown on peaceful reformists in Tibet.
Expect a massive display of weapons and censorship if anyone even mentions Tibet inside or outside the 37 sports venues. (13 JULY 2008)
