And While You’re at It
…put a shot in that big mouth of yours.
Athletes face Olympic ban for criticising China
British athletes will be banned from competing in this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing if they criticise China’s totalitarian regime.
The gagging order has been imposed by the British Olympic Association. Competitors who break the rule will not travel to the games or, if they are already in China, will be put on the next plane home.
It means sportsmen and women will be unable to raise concerns about China’s human rights record or its occupation of Tibet.
Critics accused the BOA of bowing to political pressure and said the move raised the spectre of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which passed off without protest and were hailed as a propaganda coup for the Nazi regime.
Since the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, British competitors have been asked to sign contracts including a pledge “not to comment on any politically sensitive issues”.
Somebody buy the Archbishop of Canterbury some tennies and a set of Speedos, and send him.
He gets along with everybody.
Nanny State | Mr. Bingley | 
February 10, 2008 3:07 pm
Subscribe
It’s very disheartening to see the UK come to this.
Well, Gunslinger, they were doing much the same in 1936. Ask Neville Chamberlain.
This time, though, there’s no Winston Churchill. More’s the pity.
How about criticizing the effing Chinese for bribing their way into hosting the games in one of the world’s most polluted cities?
The US team has a special doctor assigned to help athletes trian for the smog, and to keep them form doing something stupid like working out in a closed garage with a car running.