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Boycott the Beijing Games?

The wide-ranging human rights violations of the Chinese government have long been condemned internationally. When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the 2008 summer Olympic Games in Beijing on 13 July 2001, the Chinese government pledged human rights improvements, in particular with regard to journalistic freedom. International watch groups such as Reporters Without Borders find that six years later, China has not lived up to its promises. While China had hoped to use its role as host to showcase itself as a modern world power, the February resignation of Steven Spielberg as the Games’ creative director, and recent violent protests in Tibet, have served instead to turn up the volume on international criticism and the case for boycott.

From the outset, Reporters Without Borders has been opposed to holding the Olympic Games to Beijing. Now, just months before the opening ceremony, it is clear the Chinese government still sees the media and Internet as strategic sectors that cannot be left to the "hostile forces" denounced by President Hu Jintao. The departments of propaganda and public security and the cyber-police implement censorship with scrupulous care.

Instructor: Vincent Brossel has been Head of the Asia-Pacific Desk for Reporters Without Borders since 1999. He has conducted on-the-spot investigations and production of reports on Afghanistan, Nepal, Tibet, China, Pakistan, Thailand, Bangladesh, Burma, Korea and Sri Lanka and coordinated the organisation's research and other work in Asia. Before joining Reporters Without Borders, Vincent led an NGO project in Peru in the communications field. He completed his PhD in political science in Toulouse, France in 1996.

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