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

Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom
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The French company Thales (Thomson) has sold and installed a lot of the equipment used
for jamming. It is known that Chinese manufacturers have copied the foreign equipment
and are now exporting it to other countries, including Zimbabwe.
The Chinese Embassy in Oslo has told us: “it is our right to block access to your
transmissions. You are hostile to China and you are the Dalai Lama’s radio station and
your objective is to split Tibet from China.”
Former President Jiang Zemin stated in 2002 when inspecting the XiXing project:
“Unremitting efforts should be made in the radio and television broadcasting coverage in
the western region and achievements should be consolidated, so that the voice of the
Party and the State can be transmitted further to millions of households and the voice of
China can be transmitted all over the world.”
In Tibet, it is illegal to listen to foreign broadcasts like ours.
The Voice of Tibet also transmits its programs by satellite, targeting private reception dish
owners in China, including Tibetan areas outside the Tibetan Autonomous Regions.
We have a round-the-clock service, although not through the best satellite option. In
2006, Chinese authorities threatened the up-link stations and satellite company owners
with severe consequences if they did not eliminate the Voice of Tibet. One of the
companies kept $2,000 in prepaid costs “for all the harassment and threats that have
come our way due to Voice of Tibet.”
Those with enough technical skill can access foreign radio stations through proxy servers.
But in filtering foreign web sites, the Chinese sometimes cut entire sections of the Internet
to block our web casts. Recently, the Swedish Tibet Committee experienced pressure from
Swedish companies to find another server, as they also had been blocked in China
because of filtering of www.tibet.se. Seemingly, nobody protested to the Chinese
authorities.
Documenting jamming violations is no problem. Sound clips recorded inside China from
our transmissions are available on the Internet daily. Still, it has been a struggle to get the
issue of Chinese jamming violations on the agenda and to get international support.
Governments have in many respects established a separate standard for China compared
with other countries. “What did you expect? This is China,” I am often told.
The Beijing Olympics is a historic opportunity to reach out to the Chinese peopl, and to
expose how the Communist Party manipulates reality by misusing its information and
media monopoly. The Olympics could also be a good opportunity to address the issue of
jamming violations.