FRANCE: Reporters without Borders asks French President Sarkozy to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games

Record ID: 329574

  • Title: FRANCE: Reporters without Borders asks French President Sarkozy to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games
  • Date: 26th March 2008
  • Summary: (BN13) ROISSY, PARIS, FRANCE (MARCH 25, 2008) (REUTERS) INTERIOR OF CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT ROBERT MENARD, SECRETARY-GENERAL OF REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS, ARRIVING IN TERMINAL FROM ATHENS, GREECE
  • Embargoed: 10th April 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: International Relations,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA1VC2TP5SAYP7XAQB7UI4RYRVG
  • Story Text: A Paris-based international organization that disrupted the olympic torch lighting ceremony calls for French president Nicolas Sarkozy and other government heads to boycott the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
    Reporters Without Borders, an international organization that defends journalists' freedom to report, asked French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday (March 25) to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing over China's spotty record of human rights and the escalating conflict in Tibet.
    The Paris-based group managed to disrupt the Olympic torch lighting ceremony in Ancient Olympia in Greece on Monday (March 24) when three demonstrators broke a tight police cordon.
    One of them, carrying a black banner with five interlocked handcuffs in the pattern of the Olympic rings, approached Beijing Games chief Liu Qi during his speech in front of hundreds of officials but was quickly led away by police.
    After arriving back from Greece, Robert Menard, the Secretary-General of the group said they are not asking the athletes to boycott the games.

    "We are not asking the athletes not to go to Peking. We are definitely not asking them for this. Every athlete has to do as he wants according to his own conscience. But what we are demanding is for the heads of states and governments, and here in France, Mr. Sarkozy, we are asking them today that if the situation doesn't improve in Tibet and the rest of China, that they will not be present at the opening ceremony on the 8th of August for the Olympic Games," said Menard.
    According to figures gathered by French polling institutes CSA and IFOP, the majority of the French public support a political boycott by government officials at the opening ceremony in Beijing.
    Vincent Brossel, from the Pacific-Asia desk for Reporters Without Borders, arriving at the Charles De Gaulle-Roissy airport with Menard, said that he would continue protests up until the start of the Games.

    "We are going to do a lot of actions, a lot of demonstrations every time we can, so we're going to follow the torch relay. The torch will be in Europe next week, in London, in Paris. We plan to do a lot of demonstrations. We want to use every opportunity we have to raise this issue again and again," said Brossel.
    The Tibet protests come at a sensitive time for China, the host of the 2008 Olympic Games, with its hotly-contested human rights record, which had been criticised well in advance of the Tibet riots by the international community.
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