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10.08.2004IOC asked to take a stand on Athens Olympics censorshipPrague / Frankfurt, August 10, 2004 – Two human rights organizations are calling on the International Olympic Committee to take a stand on an “attack on the freedom of speech” at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Olympic Watch and International Society for Human Rights (ISHR/IGFM) are “extremely concerned to hear that posters and other material promoting … Taiwan are being blocked from display at Athens International Airport and elsewhere in the city”. The news of posters being taken down and billboards being blocked has been reported by major international media over the past few days.Olympic Watch and ISHR/IGFM say that if these reports were true, “it would be a tragic and unacceptable abuse of the IOC for the political intentions of the Beijing government”. They point out that the “idealism of the Olympic movement should not be betrayed under any circumstances”. The letter challenges IOC President Jacques Rogge to “publicly denounce such a move as an attack on the freedom of speech; … express that the IOC continues to support the Olympic ideals of ‘harmonious development of man’ and ‘human dignity’, exemplified in and assisted by respect for human rights; and confirm that the IOC will continue to take this stand right through to the end of the 2008 Olympic Games”, scheduled to take place in Beijing. The government of the People’s Republic of China continues to be one of the grossest violators of human rights in the world. On top from executing more people in a year than the rest of the world’s governments combined, it turns a blind eye to torture and ill-treatment of detainees and prisoners, regularly persecutes people who merely exercise their freedom of expression. Censorship continues to block information that the authorities do not see as beneficial to its policies; the elaborate system of internet surveillance has created a new group of Chinese “cyber dissidents”. The Athens incident further suggests that the Beijing government is attempting to export violations of freedom of expression into the rest of the world. Olympic Watch (Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games in a Free and Democratic Country) was established in Prague in 2001. Its mission is to monitor the human rights situation in the People’s Republic of China in the run-up to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and to campaign to achieve improvements in the lives of the people of China. Full text of the letter, faxed today to IOC President Jacques Rogge, follows below. Prague / Frankfurt, 10 August 2004 Dear President Rogge, We are extremely concerned to hear that posters and other material promoting the democratic Republic of China / Taiwan are being blocked from display at Athens International Airport and elsewhere in the city. Even more worrying are the reports that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was involved in this procedure: Under pressure by the totalitarian government of the People’s Republic of China it instructed the Athens Olympics Organising Committee to take this step. Should these reports be true, it would be a tragic and unacceptable abuse of the IOC for the political intentions of the Beijing government. We feel that the Olympic Charter and the non-political idealism of the Olympic movement should not be betrayed under any circumstances. To diffuse these concerns, we respectfully call on you to publicly • denounce such a move as an attack on the freedom of speech; • urge the Athens Olympics Organising Committee to revoke the removal of the materials; • reject all attempts by the Beijing government to abuse the Olympic movement for political purposes; • express that the IOC continues to support the Olympic ideals of “harmonious development of man” and “human dignity”, exemplified in and assisted by respect for human rights; • and confirm that the IOC will continue to take this stand right through to the end of the 2008 Olympic Games. We look forward to hearing your public statement. Most sincerely, Jan Ruml Chairman, Olympic Watch Karl Hafen Managing Director, ISHR/IGFM Olympic Watch |
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