China tightens screws against dissidents ahead of Olympics
GENEVA (AFP) — Chinese authorities have stepped up efforts to censor dissenting voices in the run-up to the Olympic Games, a report by two human rights groups charged Thursday.
"The context related to the run-up to the Olympic Games in August 2008 has continuously strengthened an environment already hostile to human rights and their defenders," said the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in its annual report.
The observatory is a joint project by the Geneva-based World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH).
It cited four people who were arrested after making protests in relation to the Olympic Games.
Among them was Hu Jia, who was taken into custody last December 27 after publicly criticising the Chinese government's failure to keep its promise to promote and protect human rights, a promise that was make when it was awarded the Games.
Hu, 34, was found guilty at a Beijing court of "incitement to subvert state power" following a one-day trial in March, and sentenced to three-and-a-half years behind bars in early April.
In a foreword to the report, writer Wei Jingsheng wrote: "In particular, last year the Chinese Government's repression has rapidly upgraded, in an effort to make sure there is no dissident voices from the people during the 2008 Olympics."
Outside China, charged Wei, some Western politicians have even tried to stop their sportsmen from expressing their political opinions on China during the Games.
In February, the London-based Mail on Sunday newspaper reported that the British Olympic Association had inserted clauses into its athletes' contracts forbidding them to comment on "politically sensitive issues."
Other human rights repression in China had included the forced evictions of citizens from their homes as well as censorship of the media and Internet, said the NGO.
Press freedom in China is now among the lowest in the world, and commentaries are tailored to meet "the propaganda standard(s) of the Chinese Communist Party," said the report.
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