iReport.com is a user-generated site. That means the stories submitted by users are not edited, fact-checked or screened before they post. Only stories marked "On CNN" have been vetted for use in CNN news coverage. Learn more »
close
iReport: Unedited. Unfiltered. News.
Upload Now!
iReports
iReporters
Blog
Map
Home > iReports > Story
China; The world is watching - The Olympic spotlight
Click to view TibetVideos's profile Posted by: TibetVideos // 5 months ago // viewed 82 times
embed media
Last updated: 5 months ago
A multi sourced sampling:
Death threats against foreign reporters, government condemnation of international media, increasing political pressure on Chinese sources: This is not the free, open reporting climate the Chinese government promised for the 2008 Olympics.
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4534

More
Foreigners find Beijing becomes a forbidden city before Olympics
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080605.wolympics05/BNStory/International/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080605.wolympics05

Priorities are misplaced as China readies for Games
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-sp-dwyre10-2008jun10,0,6714672.column
Resources that will be used to put country in international spotlight in August would be better spent on helping victims of massive earthquake. But no one is questioning letting the Games go on.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JF12Ad02.html
Nearly three months after the first riots broke out there, foreign journalists remain banned from the autonomous region. Hong Kong and Taiwanese reporters were recently given a four-day tour of the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, however, and even that officially monitored journalistic junket turned up stories that clashed with the central government's one-sided portrayal of what happened.

Meanwhile, Beijing has agreed to meetings with envoys of the Dalai Lama - who has repeatedly renounced violence, supported the Beijing Olympics and stated that he does not seek an independent Tibet - while continuing to vilify him and his "Dalai clique" in state media. It may be too much to expect Beijing to reach an accommodation with the Dalai Lama on the status of Tibet, but it would be nice to see the vilification campaign stop.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/03/opinion/edwang.php

The Chinese people are not their government. Since 1989, my country, China, and its people have changed much. But the government has changed remarkably little. The many dissidents still behind bars today represent a national tragedy as well as a political humiliation.

When bidding for the Olympics both times, Beijing solemnly vowed before the world to improve its human rights conditions. Yet the autocrats who control the Chinese Communist Party - the only political force allowed to operate in the country since 1949 - continue to crack down on any voices asking for some of the most basic human rights.

To distract from this record of repression, the Chinese government is attempting to use the Olympic Games to once again propagate a new economic "leap forward" model, with narrow-minded nationalism as its flag.
Average Rating (5)
E-mail to a friendE-mail this story | Share
Log in to report violation
Log in to Comment Comments