The International Olympic Commitee (IOC) has announced that athletes will be allowed to blog this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing – but what will they actually be able to say?
In order to protect other media who hold rights to the games’ coverage, blogging competitors will have to follow strict guidelines, the Associated Press reports, with blogs taking a diary-style and no interviews with or comments about other athletes allowed.
Furthermore, athletes’ blogs cannot contain any audio or video content of ‘any Olympic events, including sporting action, opening, closing and medal ceremonies or other activities which occur within any zone which requires an Olympic identity and accreditation card (or ticket) for entry.’ Similarly still photos are allowed, so long as they don’t show any Olympic events.
Finally, sponsorship of such blogs is forbidden and none of their domain names can contain the word Olympic, Olympics or anything similar.
How dare the International Olympic Committee join with the butchers of Beijing to censor athletes in any way! Do athletes somehow become slaves of the Chinese dictatorship just because they are part of the Propaganda Olympics?
No! If you are an athlete, start your own unofficial blog and load it up with videos, photos, interviews with Chinese human rights victims. Take your video camera, digital camera, and a laptop to upload and blog. Show a finger to the censors! China and the IOC won’t dare send you home because they’ll fear the reactions if they try. Google for ways to get around the “Great firewall” in China so you can update it from your hotel or other location.
Action items on China and Tibet, including for athletes:
http://www.conservativeusa.org/action.htm
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