I was watching George Negus on
SBS - "Dateline," Wednesday, 30th July 2008
8.30pm.

It seems that China will be strictly curtailing
the media reporting on the Olympics.

According to the report that Negus was given, there
are to be five "forbidden topics," that journalists
will not be allowed to cover.

Negus wasn't able to list the topics - but I
imagine they could be topics like - Tibet,
Human rights violations, Tiananmen Square, and so on.

My question is, should politics be kept out of
the Olympics? Should reporters comply with
China's wishes and simply report on the
sporting events, or should they raise issues like
those I've listed?

Your thoughts please?

Foxy “My question is, should politics be kept out of the Olympics?”

Ideally many things should be free of the dead hand of political accord, scrutiny and mandate.

Unfortunately the ideal does not exist

Reality, coming up short on the “ideal”, is like it or not, since the 1936 games the process has been at least, in part, politically defined and the Melbourne Olympic Games have the notoriety of being the first to be boycotted (re issues regarding Suez and Hungary in that same year)

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/anwer_sher/2008/07/expect_pockets_of_olympic_diss.html

might help with background to your question Foxy.

Regarding censorship of reporting. One famous tactic which has been used several times is for newspapers to print blank spaces where journalistic / editorial content has been censored.

It sends a stark message and one worth considering, especially since the reach of the Chinese communist party is not universal.

The Chinese... having come to power based on at least partly distorted propoganda which deliberately skewed events to persuade the masses that they were in fact 'victims of imperialist bougoise capitalists'...they know full well how the media can be manipulated for political effect :)

is there any more needing to be said?

Foxy, I would think it almost impossible to keep politics out of the Olympics. If this week's Dateline is any example, there is already much politics going on pre-Olympics and will probably continue long after now that China has opened its doors to the rest of the world both Olympic-wise and economically.

Once the games begin, the rest of the world will be temporarily focussed on medals, and human rights issues may fall into the background. China's attitude towards media only serves to reinforce what is already universally accepted about their record of human rights abuses.

Unfortunately things are not always as they 'should' be but just are what they are.

Ever since the Games were awarded to Beijing there has been this Candide-like trust in some quarters that, somehow, holding the event might change the way China is governed.

Given that China is a "communist" country (i.e. a dictatorship) how this view was ever given credence is one of life's baffling mysteries, equivalent to believing that John Edwards communicates with dead people. We know that people are sucked in, but can't for the life of us fathom why.

The allocation of the Games to Beijing was a purely commercial decision, as all such decisions have been since the Coca Cola games in Atlanta.

There will be a few idealists who will sob into their soy latte mugachinos, but life will go on much as before. No country has had the moral courage (or smug self-righteousness, really) to boycott the event, so everyone concerned will simply go ahead and make money, as they always do.

No amount of hand-wringing is going to move this particular mountain, I'm afraid.

To All of you - Thanks for your
insights.

I guess what I'm hoping for is that our
Australian foreign correspondents shall
maintain their tradition of independence
and courage, and will continue to give us
honest insights from China, despite
any imposed restrictions during the games.

But, perhaps the insights will come after
the games?

It will interesting to see nevertheless, just how much
freedom our journalists will be allowed
in their reporting.