Human rights watchdog slams China for media restrictions

Dharam Shourie
New York, Aug 9 (PTI) Slamming the Chinese government for
putting "severe restrictions "on foreign media covering
Olympics, an international human rights watchdog Friday said
it was "disgraceful" that Beijing didnot keep its commitment
of complete press freedom.

Foreign journalists, who have come to cover the Beijing
Olympics Games, face a host of "severe restrictions, ranging
from harassment to a censored Internet," the Human Rights
Watch said.

The restrictions break China's formal commitment, made in
2001 when bidding to host the Games, to provide "complete
freedom" to foreign media, it added.

On August four two Japanese journalists were detained and
beaten in Kashgar, while on August six an ESPN producer at the
scene of a Students for Free Tibet protest in Beijing was
harassed, the rights group alleged.

In addition to obstruction by uniformed police in
Beijing, foreign media have to contend with close monitoring
and harassment by large numbers of plainclothes police and
Olympic volunteers working under police instruction, the Human
Rights Watch said.

"Their tactics include aggressively following,
videotaping, or photographing journalists in an attempt to
hinder their work," it added.

Websites containing content considered "sensitive" remain
blocked, including those linked to Tibetan groups and the
Falun Gong, which the Chinese government considers an "evil
cult," the rights watchdog said.

The Chinese-language pages of international human rights
organisations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty
International, China Rights Defenders and Human Rights in
China, as well as overseas Chinese-language news websites such
as ChineseNews.net and Radio Free Asia's Mandarin service have
also been blocked by the Chinese government, the human rights
group said.

"These actions are in direct violation of the Chinese
government's temporary regulations on foreign media freedom,
in effect from January 2007 to October 2008, which guarantee
the foreign media "complete freedom to report."

They also violate the government's pledge to the
International Olympic Committee to lift all restrictions on
Internet access for foreign media who are covering the Games,
it added. PTI DS