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BEIJING: Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders
said earlier this week, during its first official visit to China, it
has ended its boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
“It is the first time that we
have met with the Chinese authorities. This is evidently an
initiative on their part, otherwise we would have had our visas
returned,” said secretary-general Robert Menard, who arrived
Wednesday last week for a one-week visit.
Menard said he gave Chinese
officials a list of 80 imprisoned journalists and cyber-dissidents
and asked to visit the prisons.
He also asked China to stop its
censorship on many Internet websites, including that of his
Paris-based organization and requested to set up an office in
Beijing.
“We made specific requests . .
. like the release of prisoners, the possibility to visit prisons,
to work in Beijing and to end the censorship of websites,” said
the secretary general of the journalist rights body.
Menard said his organization no
longer called for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, scheduled to
take place in 19 months’ time, following recent improvements for
journalists in the country.
“Government officials said they
were ready to reconsider the situation of journalists and Internet
users who are currently imprisoned,” according to a statement from
the organization.
The statement noted a number of
improvements that Beijing had made recently, including new
regulations, which took effect January 1, that allow more freedom to
foreign journalists working in China.
The media watchdog also thanked
China for voting for United Nations Security Council Resolution 1738
about protecting journalists in war zones, the statement said.
“The commitments that have been
made are welcomed by Reporters Without Borders as signs of change on
the eve of next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing,” the statement
said.
Reporters Without Borders ranks
China 163rd out of 167 countries on its global press freedom index.
--AFP
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