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