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Senators want IOC to reverse Olympic censorship deal |
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By Klaus Marre
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Posted: 07/31/08 03:15 PM [ET] |
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Two senators on Thursday called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to reverse an Internet censorship deal that it reportedly made with China. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.) called the reports of such a deal “extremely disturbing” and demanded that the IOC provide open Internet access to media covering the Summer Olympics, which will begin next week. “Censorship is anathema to the very spirit of the Olympic Games, which celebrates diversity, emphasizes mutual respect and demands dispassionate, unadulterated representation of each competition,” the two senators said in a letter to IOC President Jacques Rogge. “If Olympic hosts are permitted to curtail and manipulate information available to the Games’ global audience, that breach of trust will inevitably undermine the credibility of the Olympics itself.” Earlier this week, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) warned that China’s government had asked international hotel chains to install computer software and hardware that would allow the monitoring of Internet activity of visitors to the Olympics. “China had promised to provide media covering the games with the same access and freedoms enjoyed at all other Olympic Games. This has yet to happen,” Inhofe and Brown said in their petition to the IOC. “The IOC cannot sacrifice the Olympic ideals in the name of harmony with its host city,” the senators stated. “IOC complicity threatens the integrity of not only this, but all future Games.” |
