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.

Matt Whitticase of Free Tibet Campaign said:

"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."

"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.

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.