Journalists' group wants Beijing to honour promise of free coverage at Olympics
The Foreign Correspondents Club of China has called on Beijing to honour its promise to reduce restrictions on foreign journalists, saying the widespread detention of journalists shows that the country is not prepared to host the Olympic press corps in 2008.
In a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (Bocog) yesterday, the club said a survey had shown authorities 'frequently detain foreign reporters, and occasionally use violence against them and their sources'.
'China's controls on foreign media are not in keeping with China's commitment to the International Olympic Committee to allow free coverage, and are an affront to the Olympic spirit,' club president Melinda Liu said. 'We urge China to quickly adopt the practices of press freedom expected of Olympic hosts.'
She urged the government to abolish rules that made the reporting of sensitive social issues an offence, and which require foreign journalists to apply for permission before making reporting trips outside the cities in which they are based.
The club, which has 210 members from 21 countries, said the rules, particularly articles 14 and 15, were the basis for the detention of correspondents and harassment of their sources and assistants.
According to the survey, which was carried out last month, 72 incidents of harassment involving foreign journalists have occurred since 2004, when China was handed the Olympic torch.