Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom - World Press ...

Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom
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It seems as though the “strike hard” and “re-education” campaigns in Tibet following the
expulsion from the territory of tourists and international media is a way of stepping up
assimilation policies that have been threatening Tibetan culture and identity for centuries.
In this perspective, it is important to credit the Tibetans for not targeting the Chinese
people with their protests and demonstrations, but instead directing their anger at the
Chinese political leadership. The monks who broke free to reach the international press on
a guided tour to Labrang on April shouted, “We want human rights” and “We have no
rights” and many said, “We are not against the Beijing Olympics, we are for the Beijing
Olympics.” Of course, these statements will never reach the Chinese public, at least not
through the domestic media.
Art. 35 in the Chinese Constitution reads: “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy
freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of
demonstration.” I have not much to add to this, except to question why these rights are
not respected.
For the more than 12 years that Voice of Tibet has been on the air, our transmissions
have been targeted by systematic jamming by China. For years, we have protested these
violations. But the International Telecommunication Union, a global institution under the
UN umbrella that is responsible for regulating and overseeing international broadcasting
law, tells us they are aware of the problem and that we have their moral support, but they
can do nothing. They say, “It is a waste of time coming to us.”
In the late 1990s, the Chinese authorities began understanding the popularity and impact
of foreign short-wave radio broadcasts into Tibet. They responded in 2000 with what is
called the XiXing project. Since then, hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in
improving their own ability to broadcast their own programs and to jam or block access to
foreign broadcasts.
There are two ways of blocking access to short-wave radio broadcasts, and our
transmissions are targeted by both:
• Jamming on top of Voice of Tibet’s registered frequencies, using high power
transmitters outside the cities of Xian, Beijing, Kashi and Nanning. Most of the
time, transmissions from two different locations target each and every Voice of
Tibet transmission.
• Local or “ground-wave” jamming using small transmitters in or outside more than
100 cities and townships in Tibetan areas. These local jammers are very effective,
but have a limited reach of about 20 kilometers in radius, depending on the
topography of the area.
The jamming transmissions do not stop at the border. The signals, containing a mix of
dragon dance music, drums and noise, badly affect listening in India, Nepal and all the
way to Europe.