Protestors in Hong Kong slam China's curbs on press freedom

Dec 10, 2007, 11:56 GMT

Hong Kong - Campaigners Monday unfurled a banner outside China's de facto embassy in Hong Kong showing the Olympic rings as handcuffs to protest against curbs on press freedom in China.

The five protestors from the groups Reporters Without Borders held up the 15-metre banner outside the Beijing Liaison Office in Hong Kong.

The protest, marking Human Rights Day, was in response to the continued detention of journalists in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics despite promises by China to improve press freedoms.

'We have a duty to draw attention to the disastrous situation for free speech in China,' Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

'The Chinese government must take firm action before the games, starting with the release of the hundred of so detained journalists and cyber-dissidents.

'We are not trying to spoil a major sports event, but who will be able to say these games have been a success when thousands of prisoners of conscience languish in Chinese jails overshadowed by these sports stadiums?'

In August, four Reporters Without Borders activists were arrested after holding an unauthorized news conference outside the building of the Olympic Games Organizing Committee in Beijing.

The pressure group, which describes China as 'the world's biggest prison for journalists,' originally planned to unfurl its banner in Beijing but switched the protest to Hong Kong when its members were refuse visas to enter China.

The group estimates that there are currently 33 journalists and 49 internet users detained, and about 100 currently serving prison terms for subversion or giving out state secrets.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 but has a mini-constitution that guarantees freedoms denied to people in other parts of China.