2008 Beijing Games Human Rights News

The hospitality of the Chinese authorities during the Olympic Games has its limits, especially as regards Beijing’s central square. The municipal government announced this morning that “Chinese and foreign journalists are asked to request an appointment by telephone with the Tiananmen Square Administrative Committee” if they are bold enough to want to film or conduct interviews in the square. This is a violation of the rules that the authorities themselves issued at the beginning of the year and the commitments (the what?) that were given to the IOC. But then again, this is not the first time the Communist Party has broken a promise. How will the authorities react when those cheeky foreign TV stations try to film the start of the marathon under Chairman Mao’s photo?

Anyway, the paramilitary police is always there when foreigners need to be given a taste of China’s new glory. Two Japanese reporters learned this bitter lesson on 4 August in Kashgar, in the northwestern province of Xinjiang, says Reporters Without Borders, which fears more incidents of this kind, “for which the IOC will share the blame because it took so long to request guarantees for the safety of the media.” But that seems to be the least of the IOC’s concerns. The most important thing, it keeps saying, is the quality of Beijing’s hotels.