Media group slams China in annual press freedom report

Feb 13, 2008, 18:13 GMT

A Hong Kong Policeman passes activists from \'Reporters Without Borders\' displaying a banner with the five rings of the Olympic Games represented by five handcuffs, outside the Central Government Liaison Office, Hong Kong, China on 10 December 2007. \'Reporters Without Borders\' is calling for better human rights in China in general, more press freedom in China in particular, as well as the release of all detained journalists and \'cyber-dissidents\' in mainland prisons in the run up to the Beijing Olympic Games in August 2008. EPA/ALEX HOFFORD

Paris - The French-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Wednesday charged that China has not kept any of its promises regarding freedom of the press in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

'Not one of the promises made by the (Chinese) authorities to secure the 2008 Olympics was kept,' RSF charged in its annual press freedom report.

'At least 180 foreign journalists were arrested, physically assaulted or threatened in China, even though at the time the Games were awarded in 2001 an official said: 'There will be total freedom of the press.' And 15 Chinese journalists and cyber-dissidents were arrested in 2007.'

RSF said that about 100 journalists, Internet users and bloggers were currently imprisoned in China.

'Nobody apart from the International Olympic Committee seems to believe any longer that the government will make a significant human rights concession before the Games start,' RSF said. 'Every time a journalist or blogger is released, another goes to prison.'

In its review of media freedoms in 98 countries, RSF also had harsh words for the international community, accusing public officials around the world of 'impotence, cowardice and duplicity' in defending freedom of expression.

'The spinelessness of some Western countries and major international bodies is harming press freedom,' the group's secretary-general, Robert Menard, said.

Menard singled out the United Nations Human Rights Council for particular criticism, saying: 'While the UN Security Council passed a strong resolution in New York calling for the grim violence against journalists to stop, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva was equally energetic in letting off those responsible for such violence.

'The Council had yielded in 2007 to pressure from Iran and Uzbekistan, major rights offenders whose actions were not even discussed by the Council.'

He also criticized the Human Rights Council for not renewing the mandates of special human rights rapporteurs for Belarus and Cuba.