Olympics: EU urges China to loosen media curbs beyond Olympics

By Agence France Press | The Nation (Thailand)
April 12, 2007

Beijing - China should loosen its grip on the media beyond the Olympic Games and not just for foreign reporters, the European Union's media commissioner said here Thursday.

"We appreciate that there is some kind of opening with the Olympic Games," European Commissioner for Information Society and Media Viviane Reding told reporters on the second day of her visit to Beijing.

"I hope that this opening will continue also after the Olympic Games."

Reding said China's communist rulers should loosen the shackles on the domestic press both in the traditional as well as new forms of media.

"My opinion is very simple. I am against any government intervention in the media, whatever the media are, if it is a print or it is a new media," she said.

"It is not the business of the government whatsoever to intervene in whatever way on the Internet. Leave the Internet free without government intervention."

Reding brought the issue up in her discussions with ministers in charge of information and scientific research, saying a free society is a prerequisite for the development of a successful economy.

"I don't believe that you can separate one from the other," she said.

On January 1 China lifted some restrictions for foreign reporters, giving them more freedom to work and travel in a bid to improve its image before the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

But domestic media, including the Internet, continue to be tightly controlled by the ruling Communist Party which fears instability and challenges to its power.

The country is ranked by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders as the 163rd out of 167 countries on its global press freedom index.

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