Suppression of media freedoms flies in face of Olympic spirit - Foster

4.45.28pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 8th Aug 2007

Responding to news that with only one year to go before the Beijing Olympics, China is falling short of its pledge to guarantee complete media freedom, City MP and Lib Dem Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Don Foster said:

"China's failure to ensure that all members of the press are able to travel and report freely is deplorable.

"I urge the Chinese government to extend freedoms to travel and report around China to their own journalists, and to foreign correspondents beyond the 17 October 2008 deadline. Imprisoning journalists and suppressing the right to freedom of speech flies in the face of the Olympic spirit.

"It is estimated that 30 journalists are currently detained in China and more than 157 incidents infringing journalistic freedoms of foreign correspondents have occurred within the last year.

"Now is the time to act. I have written to the IOC asking them to put pressure on Beijing to grant the media complete liberty to report the truth, without fear of intimidation or violence."