Put in place prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and due to end roughly a month after the Paralympics, the measures to afford greater independence to foreign reporters in China are about three weeks from ending. Now there is speculation about whether these freedoms will continue at all, or whether the rules will return to [...]
Archive for the ‘Protests’ Category
Relaxed Press Freedoms Pass With The Beijing Games
Posted in Censorship, Legacy, Protests, tagged Beijing Olympics, beijing paralympics, press freedom, press restrictions on 22 September 2008 | 1 Comment »
Olympic Security – Knives, bombs and the Welsh Dragon
Posted in Censorship, Protests, tagged beijing olympcis, olympic security, olympics, Tibet on 26 August 2008 | 1 Comment »
Queuing up to pass through one of the many security check points at the Olympics on one occasion there was a recording being played over the PA system: “Flags of non-participating countries and regions, and sharp objects are not permitted into the Olympic Green”.
At first this seemed like a strange combination – why should sporting [...]
Olympic Opening Ceremony Day
Posted in Beijing, Preparation, Protests, Public expectation, Uncategorized, tagged beijing 2008, beijing olympcis, beijing olympcis blog, beijing olympcis opening ceremony, opening ceremony, shanghai on 8 August 2008 | 10 Comments »
Finally the day has come and everybody – with the possible exception of those who have chosen to time such an auspicious date with wedding/child birth – is gearing up for the main event; the Opening Ceremony.
All over Shanghai people have been working half-days, leaving work early to prepare for the evening’s festivities. Bars and [...]
Gaming for Change – Guest Post
Posted in Censorship, Guest Posts, Legacy, Media, Protests, tagged 1988 olympics, 2008 Olympics, Beijing, china, olympics and politics, south korea on 6 August 2008 | 1 Comment »
Guest post by Jordan Hirsch
In mid–March, several days of peaceful demonstrations against Chinese rule exploded into violent rioting in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. On March 17th, as China engaged in the bloodiest period of its crackdown against the protestors, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge circulated an internal memo to IOC officials, outlining a [...]
Will Security Suffocate The Olympic Spirit? – Guest Post
Posted in Beijing, Guest Posts, Legacy, Media, Protests, olympic torch, tagged Beijing, beijing 2008, Beijing Olympics, beijing security, chinese security, olympic protests, olympic security, Tibet, Tibetan protests on 21 July 2008 | 7 Comments »
Few people would argue that China is controversial choice of host country for the 2008 Olympics – something the Chinese government are only too aware of. With high profile protests greeting the Olympic torch’s global relay and rioting in various western provinces by ethnic Tibetans there is a very real threat of unrest spoiling the [...]
Taiwan’s Olympic Name – Chinese Taipei or China’s Taipei?
Posted in Architecture, Culture, Protests, Public expectation, olympic torch, tagged china, chinese olympics, chinese taipei, olympic games, olympic protests, olympic torch, olympics, taipei 101, taiwan, zhongghu taipei, zhongguo taibei, zhongguo taipei, zhonghua taibei on 13 July 2008 | 8 Comments »
Attending an Olympic Games hosted by China was always going to throw up some interesting challenges for the Taiwanese team, and the China’ Taiwan Affairs office have decided to spice things up. The controversy revolves around the name that Taiwan competes under at the Olympics…
The situation is this: in 1989 China and Taiwan agreed that [...]
Beijing Olympic Anti-Terrorism Exercises
Posted in Legacy, Preparation, Protests, Public expectation, olympic torch, tagged anti-terrorism, Beijing Olympics, beijing terrorism, chinese military, chinese police, olympic preparations, olympic terrorism, olympic torch on 10 July 2008 | 3 Comments »
This week the Boston Globe has a collection of photos from various anti-terrorism exercises and demonstrations (thanks to Rachel for pointing this out). A number of these come from “a week-long series of anti-terrorist drills called “Great Wall 5″, in preparation for the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games”, so the Globe claims.
Although this may just be [...]
Olympic Flame Ghosts Through Xinjiang
Posted in Culture, Media, Protests, olympic torch, tagged Beijing, Beijing Olympics, beijing olympics games, james reynolds, kashgar, olympic flame, olympic torch, torch relay, uighur, urumqi, xinjiang on 19 June 2008 | 3 Comments »
The Olympic torch is continuing it’s path to back to Beijing via every province in China, and the most recent legs have been passing through the country’s largest province, Xinjiang. However the atmosphere of the relay appears to have been unusually quiet, as many local people have been told to stay away. There has been [...]
Will Dwain Chambers Make Beijing?
Posted in Athletes, Drugs, Legacy, Protests, The Games, Track and Field, tagged 100m, athletics, Drugs, dwain chambers, olympic ban, olympic drugs, olympic qualifiers, olympics, performance enhancing drugs, thg on 8 June 2008 | 4 Comments »
In the BBC Olympic blog Adrian Warner revealed on Friday that key figures in Athens “think Dwain Chambers has a good chance of winning his drugs appeal against the British Olympic Association and making it to the Beijing Games”.
Drugs is an issue that has come to overshadow track and field athletics (amongst other sports of [...]
Paula Radcliffe’s Olympics On A Knife Edge
Posted in Air pollution, Athletes, Environment, Protests, The Games, tagged beijing olympic games, Beijing Olympics, london marathon, marathon, olympic marathon, paula radcliffe on 22 May 2008 | 4 Comments »
Paula Radcliffe has been focussing on very little this year apart from the Beijing Olympics, particularly since missing the London Marathon with a toe injury. But now it appears that another injury may rule out her chances in China too. On Wednesday an MRI scan revealed a stress fracture in her left femur.
Radcliffe’s chances of [...]
