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A daily comment on what's in the news and what should be in the news, from the Amnesty media team.
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This blog is censored: by order of the Chinese government
So, the countdown to the Games is now in single figures, the athletes are arriving at Beijing’s glossy new airport, and China is ratcheting up yet another broken promise to its ever-increasing list.
Today it’s been revealed that the Chinese authorities are blocking journalists’ access to a number of websites at the Olympics press centre, including our very own Amnesty International website. This meant that those who tried to access our new report from Beijing's press centre couldn't do so.
This is all despite the fact that it had promised to relax the restrictions on foreign media as an example of the promised improvements in human rights during the hosting of the Olympics.
Yesterday, China dismissed Amnesty’s claim of its broken promises, by saying that the organisation had on tinted glasses…. Hmmm… judging by today’s news, it seems as though Amnesty’s vision is actually 20-20 on this!
It is astounding that the authorities can so flagrantly breach its promises to uphold basic human rights especially when the world’s media is scrutinising them.
Martin Rowson’s cartoon in today’s Guardian (above) really does tell a story of a thousand words.
Away from China, but high on our agenda here at Amnesty’s press office is the case of Radovan Karadzic. Mr Karadzic has now been extradited to The Hague, and he’s expected to appear before the Court today to hear his charges brought against him. According to his lawyer, it would appear that the former Bosnian-Serb leader has said that he wants to represent himself, as did Slobodan Milosevic. Amnesty will certainly be keeping a close eye on how this trial plays out.
Well, that’s all from us today. Hopefully you’ll hear from us tomorrow, that is unless you’re based in the Olympic press centre in Beijing…
Til the next time
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12 Comments
What can I say? With that horredouse picture showing on your blog, your words are pal and worthless.
Let me tell you something, you are not embarrasing the CCP or the Chinese governemnt by providing that groundless report. You are seriously insulting Chinese people, 1.4bn of them. It's luckily for you guys that the AI's website is blocked in China, otherwise, you may have to close your blogs due to the huge amount of negative comments posted here. lol
A suggested reading for you guys:
This is a popular article written by a Chinese scholar.
What do you want from us?
When we were called "sick man of Asia”, we were called peril.
When we billed to be the next superpower, we're called the threat.
When we closed our doors, you smuggled drugs to open markets.
When we embrace free trade, you blame us for taking away your jobs.
when we're falling apart, you marched in your troops and wanted your fair share.
when we're putting the broken pieces together, “Free Tibet”, you screamed. “It was invasion!”
So we tried communism, you hated us for being communist.
So we embraced capitalism, you hate us for being capitalist,
Then we have a billion people, you said we're destroying the planet.
Then we limit our numbers, you said it was human rights abuses.
When we were poor, you think we're dogs,
When we loan you cash, you blamed us for your debts.
When we build our industries, you called us polluters.
When we sell you goods, you blamed us for global warming,
When we buy oil, you called that exploitation and genocide.
When we were lost in chaos and rampage, you wanted rule s of laws for us.
When we uphold law and order against violence, you called that violation of human rights.
When we were silent, you said you want us to have free speech.
When we were silent no more, you say we were brainwashed.
“Why do you hate us so much?” We asked. “No,” You answered, “we don't hate you.”
“We don't hate you either, mate, do you understand us?” “Of course we do”, you said, “We have CNN, BBC, and even better, the AI.”
But why, we still feel, your western people are not happy with us.
What do you really want from us, my friend, what do you really want from us??
A-A, I suppose Human Rights Watch have it wrong as well have they: 'China: Beaten Activist to Be Tried on Eve of Olympics' ?
I suppose the HRW site is blocked to journalists by the Beijing Government too?
And I'm sure the IOC think the case has nothing whatsoever to do with the Olympics so, of course, it couldn't possibly be any of their business. Only the small matter of somebody standing up for the hundreds of thousands evicted to make way for Olympic venues and infrastructure…
This is a reply to victor. The reason why it is okay for the uk and the us to host the games is simple. They are not CONSTANT abuses of core principles surrounding human rights.
Also this is a reply to anti-amnesty (whatever that is suppose to mean) To be quite honest i am glad that they have banned the website becuase it shows just how disgusting they really are. If they think that banning the website in any way will assist them trying to direct troubleaway it wont. They have decided to upset a major influential ngo. How is that going to help the chinese authority?
to Patrick,
Human rights watch, aha, does it get the chance to 'watch' the dramatic improvement of ordinary Chinese people's life? Does it get the chance to report that 400,000,000 Chinese have been out of poverty during the recent 20 years, thanks to the consistent efforts of the Chinese government? Does it really have a balanced survey amongst ordinary Chinese people to understand their thoughts regarding human rights?
The answer is 'NO!' You simply stay in your dreams and believe some dramatic lies which has been repeatedly told by the western media and some so-called independent groups.
Your understanding of China is distorted and your views regarding China are full of self-righteousness.
Influential NGO, LMAO
Please, who cares about you guys? You guys keep saying that you care about the human rights in China. Have you been there before? If you really care about Chinese people, what have done after the earthquake? Nothing.
Amnesty is simply being used by the media and western governments. When they need some ugly news of China, they would come to you, becuase they know that is your most popular product.
Let me use a very simple calculation to unveil the ignorance of Amnesty as a whole:
Since 1989, AI's reports about China have a common word in them, ‘deteriorating'. Let's say in a more conservative way that China's human rights situation worsens 10% on a annual basis. I bet most of you would put a much higher figure instead.
Well, the assumption is the human rights of China in 1989 were 1, or (100%). The human right situation in 2008 would be (100%-10%)^19, which equals to 13.5%. which means today's human rights situation in China is only 13.5% of that in 1989.
Apparently, Chinese people are not that smart, since our human rights situation is only 13.5% of that in 1989, how come we don't follow the ‘human rights fighters' from the West to get what we deserve? The simple answer would be: your reports are nothing but lies.
Everyone with common sense and have been to China, would tell you that your report is fundamentally flawed and full of crap.
Aha, AI is banned in China, which means all your so-called evidence are from unproved second-hand sources. Hence, it is no doubt that your report is groundless. LOL
Whatever category you put Chinese government into, it doesn't matter.
As far as I know, what you've done actually improves the popularity of the Chinese government in China and ruining your reputation, if there is any left.
Perhaps Amnesty falls beyond the remit of their organization, just as I and other people in some parts of the UK are beyond the remit of Amnesty and similar organizations who operate their own self imposed silences whenever they get the nod and the wink.
The electoral registers for sunderland contain wrong numbers.
Sometimes the Registers are printed with the same error numbers
year after year, one particular period from 1958 to 1961 shows
that these mistakes cannot be common human error as during this
period one housing estate was covered by two separate electoral
wards and both of these wards show the same printed error numbers for this one housing estate. All of the electoral registers that I have looked at from about 1950 to 1972 contain errors, quite
often these are the same wrong voter registration numbers used
year after year.the placed numbers probably continue up to the
early 1990's.