Not only have people in China and Tibet seen a reduction in press and internet freedom, Western athletes are now getting gagged.

British athletes selected for this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing will be asked to sign a contract that forbids them from criticizing China’s human rights record.

Graham Nathan, spokesman for the British Olympics Association (BOA), told CNN that “British athletes will have to sign a contract promising not to comment on any politically sensitive issues.”

He added that they won’t go further than what is required by the International Olympic Committee charter which restricts demonstrations of political propaganda at an Olympic Games.

Athletes who refuse to sign the agreement will not be allowed to travel to compete in the Games from August 8-24, according to a sunday newspaper report.

How’s that decision to send the Olympics to China looking, Jacques Rogge of the I.O.C.?

The IOC granted the Olympics to China, justifying their decision with the promise from the Chinese Communist Party that they would liberalize speech and media regulations. They would let the press report whatever they wanted and they would grant their citizenry more freedoms. The IOC, wrongly, took them at their word. There has never been any follow-up by the IOC. There has never been any substantive response to the long-running crackdown on internet and political dissidents in China and Tibet.

And now, we see a major Western democracy cave to Chinese (and undoubtedly IOC) pressure by requiring their athletes to gag themselves if they want to compete in Games most have trained their whole life for.
Does the BOA really think that critical remarks from their athletes are such a threat to China’s government that their words have the potential of bringing down the Chinese government? Apparently nothing is more dangerous to China’s Olympics than the truth.

This is simply reprehensible.