On June 18, 2008, PEN issued the following letter to International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge.

June 18, 2008

Dr. Jacques Rogge
President
International Olympic Committee
Château de Vidy
1007 Lausanne
Switzerland
Fax : (41.21) 621 62 16


Dear Dr. Rogge:

We are writing on behalf of the 3,300 members of PEN American Center, an organization of writers dedicated to protecting freedom of expression wherever it is threatened, to express our continuing concern over the lack of media access to Tibet and to many other areas in the People’s Republic of China and to urge you to halt the Lhasa leg of the Olympic torch relay unless full press access is permitted on the ground.

In the wake of the protests that rocked Tibet in March 2008, the Chinese government shut down media access to a region where the free flow of information was already heavily restricted. PEN received reports of significant interruptions of telephone and Internet service in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and other Tibetan areas, hindering the flow of first-hand reports and other information as violence spread and the number of deaths rose. In a report issued this week, Human Rights Watch confirms that authorities are now confiscating mobile phones, cameras, fax machines and computers, monitoring calls, censoring and blocking emails and Internet content, and harassing Tibetans to prevent them from relaying information inside and outside of Tibet.

In bidding for the Olympic Games and in offering the requisite assurances of its intentions to protect and expand basic human rights, China has invited just this kind of scrutiny. In turn the international community, in agreeing to participate in the Beijing Games, should be seeking ways to hold the Chinese government accountable for these assurances. We therefore entreat you in the remaining days before the Olympics to press for the release of 44 writers and journalists currently being held in Chinese prisons and to insist on complete, nationwide, unrestricted freedom of the press. And if the Olympics arrive and a significant number of our colleagues are still in prison, we strongly urge you to review your planned participation in official ceremonies and events.

PEN is now receiving reports that the Chinese government, in preparation for the Lhasa leg of the Olympic Torch Relay that is now scheduled to be run on June 21, is once again stepping up control over the city and the region, redeploying armed police on June 1. Several thousand additional troops are reportedly being deployed this week, apparently in anticipation of further protests. What this buildup could portend is clear, even to the International Olympic Committee: PEN has learned that the IOC has circulated an internal memo to its members suggesting what they should say in the event of any casualties during the Lhasa stop, which is described in the document as a “particularly bold segment” of the torch relay.

Considering the dangerous tensions in China’s Tibetan areas, and bearing in mind the explicit pledges China made when bidding for the Olympic Games in 2001 that “there will be no restrictions on media reporting and movement of journalists up to and including the Olympic Games,” PEN believes that the IOC has a duty to insist that China fulfill its obligations by allowing free, open, and complete media access to Lhasa and surrounding areas when the Olympic torch passes through the region. Full press access is a time-tested way to deter casualties and human rights abuses and provide a check on other abuses of power. We therefore urge you to make full press access an absolute prerequisite to allowing the torch relay to pass through Tibet.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

Sincerely,

Francine Prose
President

Larry Siems
Director, Freedom to Write and International Programs


>> Read the IOC's Response to PEN's Letter

>> June 26, 2008: China rebuked by Olympic Committee