IOC offers some protection but press at Rio Games should be wary of security risks
When the Rio Olympics open on Friday, the thousands of journalists covering it will have the added security of knowing a formal mechanism has been put in place to let them report any press freedom violations that take place during the Games. The creation of the reporting mechanism follows years of advocacy with the International…
CPJ welcomes IOC’s press freedom complaints mechanism
New York, August 3, 2016 — The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the creation of a press freedom complaints mechanism by the International Olympic Committee that will enable journalists covering the organization and staging of the Olympic Games to report a violation of their press freedom. Thousands of journalists are converging on Rio de Janeiro…
Jailed journalist Gao Yu saw what was coming. So should the IOC
Gao Yu was right, I was wrong. Gao, who was handed a seven-year prison sentence in a Beijing court on Friday, and I met at a conference organized by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers in Paris in April 2008, a few months before the Beijing Olympic Games were to get underway. CPJ…
Press freedom and the Olympic movement
The guiding document of the Olympic movement is the Olympic Charter, a 105-page compendium of rules and regulations, but also principles and ideals that go far beyond sports. For example, the Olympic Games are intended to foment “respect for universal fundamental ethical principles, non-discrimination, and the educational value of good example.” Under the Charter, host…
Olympics: Talking tough, much too late
During the war in Vietnam, the daily press briefings by the American military were called the “Five o’clock Follies” by the foreign press corps that was on the receiving end of the military’s damage control aimed at controlling the story from Vietnam. The Beijing Games have their own daily press meeting, at 10 am, hosted…
Olympics: IOC says Internet access ‘on the table’
Facing massive outcry over Internet restrictions at the Olympic press center, the International Olympic Committee says it met today with Beijing organizers and that “the issues were put on the table.” In a statement issued this afternoon, the IOC says it has not made any deal that allows Internet restrictions to be imposed at the Main…