Freedom, Athletes, and the Olympics

The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee recently released a document covering a number of items prior to hosting the August Olympics in China. Among them are: It is necessary to have Chinese government permission to stage a protest (a permit is needed in most cases in America also); some parts of the country are closed to visitors, including Tibet (America has also prevented travel to certain areas for some visitors in the past); and, Olympic ticket purchase is no guarantee a visa to enter China will be granted (seems reasonable to me). The document also warns against displays of insulting slogans or banners at any sport's venue and forbids any religious or political banner at an Olympic venue that "disturbs the public order." I wonder what the Committee considers "insulting" and what might "disturb the public order." Anything they do not approve? No doubt.

This document must be aimed at preventing pro-Tibetan rallies, protests over China's oil and arms agreement(s) with the Sudan, and/or protests in the Muslim regions of western China. All of these might be subjects worthy of protests, especially Tibet. Whether Olympic athletes should be openly protesting them is the question.

On June 3rd, Chinese police surrounded over 100 parents protesting shoddy construction and mourning the deaths of thousands of school children in schools which collapsed during the recent earthquakes. Several crying mothers were dragged away. Some journalists trying to report on the event were also removed. The lessons: citizens don't protest the wisdom of the government in building construction or probably anything else for that matter, and reporters don't report what the government does not want the public to hear. Anyone surprised about all this fails to understand the Communist government of China or any totalitarian government for that matter.

One of the things we in the "naive" and "uninformed" public heard about China hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics was that having the games there would help promote human rights. Likely? Most certainly not. Yet, there is something oddly familiar about the claim "it would promote human rights." I seem to have heard that before. Possibly that claim was made only in order to gain the votes needed for China's Olympic host selection. Countries ruled by dictatorships hardly seem the ideal place for hosting Olympic games. Of course, I am among the "naive and uninformed," not the "enlightened."

The International Olympic Committee has sent a letter to individual Olympic committees "clarifying" its policy on political, even nonverbal expressions, by athletes in Olympic venues. Rule 51.3 of the Olympic charter, the letter said, according to the Associated Press, provides that "no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted at Olympic sites, venues, or other areas. According to the letter that ban applies very broadly indeed, encompassing "conduct of participants at all sites, areas, and venues," and includes "all actions, reactions, attitudes or manifestations of any kind of a person or group of persons, including but not limited to their look, external appearance, clothing, gestures, and written or oral statements." This I suppose applies to athletes wearing orange to protest Chinese repression or French athletes wearing a patch saying "For a Better World." Neither the orange nor the patch seem extreme to me. But these "politically correct" types always seem to be bothered, offended, or upset about anything with which they disagree. "My way or the highway."

The British and New Zealand Olympic Committees at one point issued gag orders to their Olympic athletes, but then retreated because of the outrage. Hopefully, that outrage will prevent the United States Olympic Committee from issuing some type of ban on free speech and expression to American Olympic athletes

All of this seems to conflict with the pledge issued by International Olympic Committee President Jacque Rogge in Beijing in April who said athletes could exercise freedom of speech in China. He asked only that they refrain from making political statements at certain official Olympic venues. "Freedom of expression is something that is absolute," Rogge stated. "It's a human right. Athletes have it."

Athletes either have freedom of expression or they do not. Who is right? President Rogge, the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, or the International Olympic Committee? Or will it depend on who says what, when, why, and/or where? While anyone visiting another country should be a gracious guest, there also are a large number of egregious Chinese government actions which freedom-loving people, including athletes, could protest, possibly even while there. Which is it going to be, freedom or restrictions, while Olympic athletes are in China?

Copyright 2008 by Don Emerson