The British Olympic Association (BOA) has backed down on its plan to stop athletes making political statements in China under pain of being sent back home and will reword the contract they all have to sign before going to Beijing.
One newspaper report said they would be given media training to help them respond to any awkward questions about human rights or Tibet this Summer.
The Conservatives had called the gagging “ridiculous” and the Mail on Sunday newspaper had likened it to an order given to the England football team to give a Nazi salute at a match in Berlin in 1938.
The BOA may well be feeling rather embarrassed by the affair now. What is your opinion of it?
And have Olympic protests ever brought results anyway? Tommy Smith’s clenched fist in 1968 for example brought the black power movement a spurt of publicity but ultimately achieved little apart from sinking his career, many commentators say.
Would it really make any difference to China if athletes started wearing “Free Tibet” T-shirts and holding up banners about human rights?
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5 comments so far
Yeah, I think it would make some difference to China–it still relies quite heavily on a sense of nationalism to maintain unity, and I don’t think it’d like to have those issues on display at the biggest media event in the world, where millions of its own people would be watching. How would officials explain it to Chinese citizens without turning the matter into a face-losing fiasco? Especially when a lot of Chinese would agree with the messages being expressed?
- Posted by ShaanIf China has something to be ashamed of (human rights) then rather than gag our athletes perhaps it would be better to boycott the Games by those nations who profess to be upset by the abuses.
- Posted by C. GiffordIt is another occassion of pretending that the offensive is not happening.
Athletes attending the games are guests of the host country so should conduct themselves accordingly. If they have any problem with the politics of the host country they should either keep quiet or stay away.
That view doesn’t alter the fact that the attempt to gag the athletes was wrong. It seems the BOA must have taken its cue from the mindset of the UK government and miscalculated the response. We would do well to get our own country in order before lecturing the Chinese about how to run theirs.
- Posted by Mike TThere should not be a gagging order at all because it should be irrefutably known that Politics and Sport should never mix.
- Posted by Five TimesTibet is part of China, we will not submit to anyone who wants to break China apart. Britain is a country with small territory who wants China to be as small as it.
- Posted by A Chinese