U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern on the Importance of Speaking Out in Support of Freedom and Human Rights During the 2008 Summer Olympics

Press Release

U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), Co-Chair of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, issued the following statement today on the eve of the Beijing Olympics:

"The 2008 Summer Olympics are just a day away, and the Chinese authorities continue to stifle and crack down on any individual they view as an independent voice or thinker. While thousands of Chinese dissidents, human rights and democracy advocates, religious leaders, or simply individuals who have tried to speak out on behalf of their fellow citizens have been imprisoned, we now see China's authoritarian hand target the rest of the world. They have denied celebrated former Olympians, like Joey Cheek, to come to these games; they have denied foreign journalists uncensored access to the web; they have denied Chinese citizens living abroad to return to their country, even for humanitarian missions. In the eyes of the Chinese authorities, everyone is an enemy of the state, to be jailed, detained, deported or denied entry.

"The media, especially NBC and its affiliated channels, must not paint the picture of Beijing dictated to them by the Chinese government. Regrettably, human rights, Tibet, and China's support for the brutal regimes of Burma and Sudan, are integral stories of this Olympics. We all support the achievements of American and other athletes at this Olympics, but China's own actions now require that other matters receive significant attention. Would such actions have been tolerated if carried out in Athens or Sydney? But in China, the major U.S. media, especially the broadcast media, barely merit them a shrug of the shoulders.

"Luckily, the American people live in a land where they are free to speak, and they can make their own voices heard at this important time. Human rights, religious freedom, the right to independent thought and speech, the future of the Tibetan, Burmese and Darfur people -- these are all critical issues. For my part, I will be contacting NBC and the White House; I will go on-line, post blogs and visit web sites like those of Save Darfur and Switch Over to Darfur, which will carry live reports from Darfur; I will call on President Bush to speak out on behalf of the voiceless not just from the safety of Thailand, but from Beijing itself. I have already sent President Bush a letter asking him to speak to President Hu about China's arms transfers to Sudan. That letter is posted on my website.

"An Olympics of photo ops and pretty pictures carefully choreographed and controlled by the Chinese authorities cannot be tolerated. There is more at stake here than cooking demonstrations and celebrity piano players; people's lives are literally at stake, and that's the real human interest story that's being stifled in China today."

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