Press-freedom groups have been after China — not just for not following through on promises to improve freedom and human rights, but for actually cracking down more in the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics. The communist nation, after all, is more concerned than ever about presenting a pristine image to the world, and can’t have journalists running around reporting, well, the truth. I caught up with Boxun News founder Watson Meng — whom I hung out with when I went to the U.N. for World Press Freedom Day — to ask his opinion on the idea of a boycott.
“One of the concerns is that too many exposure will make the world boycott the games, but trying to crash down press freedom makes the world angry, and triggers the boycotting,” he said. “It is a hard decision for China government. Boycotting does catch government’s great attention, but it should set up a practical goal, i.e. a goal that China government can compromise and make improvement.”
“Sun Lin, a reporter for the independent Boxun News Network, this spring covered growing conflicts in China between developers, their hired thugs and residents. Lin’s reporting included the story of Li Shougui, a poor man whose home was destroyed and belongings stolen by demolition crews. ‘The 70-year-old man cried on the street; many neighbors were moved with tears in their eyes,’ Sun wrote. ‘Neighbors helped him find a small space nearby, but he was forced out and that small space was destroyed too.’The reporter for the banned news service wrote that Li tried to get help from Nanjing city officials but was told, ‘Why are you poor? It is because you do not have any ability, you are useless, no one will solve your problem.’
Sun wrote the truth about China, not the sanitized image that China is desperately trying to project as athletes prepare to descend upon Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics. On May 30, Sun was beaten by police and arrested after he had written about China’s refusal to issue Olympic press credentials to U.S.-based Boxun - after the country had promised freedoms for foreign journalists - and later was charged with weapons possession and heading a criminal gang, for which he could be executed.”
Inspired by the campaigns put forth by Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists to bring awareness to the plight of journalists and bloggers in China, I compiled a gallery detailing some of the troubles press face in the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics.
A free press is essential for a society that respects human rights. Read the aforementioned pieces, and ask yourself the tough question: Should the Olympics be boycotted?
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