Assault On US Newsman Hardens Opposition To Beijing Olympic Bid
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com London Bureau Chief
June 26, 2001

London (CNSNews.com) - An American photographer was arrested and beaten by Chinese police over the weekend, an incident highlighted by protestors who insist that Beijing cannot be allowed to host the 2008 Olympic Games.

The journalist, an accredited photographer working for the French news agency AFP [Agence France Presse], was in Beijing for a concert of the "Three Tenors," an event intended to boost the Chinese capital's bid to host the Games.

While trying to take pictures of a demonstrator being arrested outside the venue, he was "violently arrested," said Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a French-based international press freedom organization.

"Seized by both arms, he was hit and dragged along the street [and] ... detained for more than forty minutes in a police office near the site of the concert. He is suffering from bruises on his arms." AFP has not named the photographer involved.

A wire service report said a photographer was "punched by police and detained outside the palace," while police were seen punching another man, then kicking him on the ground before dragging him away.

RSF is one of several human rights groups campaigning to prevent the International Olympic Committee from selecting Beijing as the 2008 host city when it meets on July 13. The other contenders are Toronto, Paris, Istanbul and Osaka.

Robert Menard, RSF general secretary, wrote to IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch on Monday urging him to protest to the Chinese authorities, especially as the concert by Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo - which the American was in Beijing to cover - was directly linked to the city's Olympic candidacy.

"This incident illustrates the very difficult working conditions of foreign journalists in China," he wrote. "Violence, arrests, pressures, tailing and threats are the daily lot of the foreign correspondent."

Earlier, another international organization, the New York-based Human Rights Watch, appealed to the IOC to obtain two Chinese commitments in writing.

Specifically, HRW Asia director Sidney Jones wrote in a letter to Samaranch, China should promise that, if Beijing is chosen, international media covering the event would have "unrestricted access to the country and that there will be no discrimination against journalists or participants based on their political or religious views or country of origin."

Secondly, China should allow the IOC to set up a monitoring committee including at least one human rights expert to review plans for the Games and "try to ensure that safeguards against human rights violations are built in."

RSF and two other groups, Solidarity China and the Committee for the Support of Tibetan People, earlier this month sent letters to the IOC's 124 members, urging them to not to back Beijing.

Among other points, they argued that the possibility of journalists being arrested or threatened during the Games could create "insurmountable tensions" between press and organizers, which could dampen the celebratory character of the event.

Last month, an IOC evaluation commission reporting on the five cities said Beijing, Paris and Toronto were offering excellent bids. Under the Beijing assessment, it said that "there will be no restrictions on media reporting and the movement of journalists up to and during the Olympics."

But RSF quoted a Beijing-based journalist as saying that undertaking was one the Chinese government would be unable to keep.

Dissent

While some commentators argue that hosting the Olympics will compel the Chinese to open up to the outside world, rights campaigners have expressed concern about the likelihood that the authorities will detain dissidents en masse beforehand to prevent demonstrations, critical media interviews, or other difficulties while media attention is at an all-time high.

Human Rights Watch in its letter to Samaranch noted that, prior to hosting past international events, China carried out arrests "designed to eliminate any sign of protest or dissent, and evictions of migrants or homeless people whose presence might be considered unsightly."

Meanwhile, although the IOC decision is just 18 days away, China has reportedly decided to go ahead with the trial this week of an Internet website creator accused of trying to overthrow the state.

A spokesman for the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said by phone from Hong Kong Tuesday that it was a "very sensitive" case, and commented on the fact it was going ahead shortly before the Olympic decision.

The fact the government was at this time charging Huang Qi, who was arrested a year ago for posting information about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre on his website, demonstrated its stubbornness when it came to dissent.

The spokesman said Huang's wife had herself gone missing two months ago, and family members believed she too may be in detention.

Huang's website was set up to help Chinese people locate friends or relatives who disappeared when the authorities crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.

Observers say China has been trying to exploit the Internet for its own purposes while trying to clamp down on its use by pro-democracy groups, dissidents and human rights campaigners.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2001