Study Details Harsh Treatment Of Journalists In China

Reporters Without Borders, which monitors press freedom worldwide, urged BOCOG and the IOC “to pressure the Chinese government to guarantee that journalists will be able to move about freely and write without fear of reprisals before and after the games,” according to DAILY VARIETY’s Bobbie Whiteman. Also, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) released a two-year survey showing that foreign correspondents “face frequent detention and occasional violence at the hands of local authorities.” The survey detailed 72 reported incidents involving reporters from 15 countries working mostly in Beijing. Whiteman writes the statements are “a wake-up call to broadcasting execs, including reps from Olympics rights-holder NBC, who will gather in China on Thursday to begin hammering out the logistics of covering the games” (DAILY VARIETY, 8/8). Thursday’s meeting is the second such planning and operations conference. The first was held last September (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 8/8).