British Olympic chiefs are to force athletes to sign a contract promising not to speak out about China's appalling human rights record – or face being banned from travelling to Beijing. The move – which raises the spectre of the order given to the England football team to give a Nazi salute in Berlin in 1938 (see photo) immediately provoked a storm of protest.The controversial clause has been inserted into athletes' contracts for the first time and forbids them from making any political comment about countries staging the Olympic Games...
From the moment they sign up, the competitors – likely to include the Queen's granddaughter Zara Phillips and world record holder Paula Radcliffe – will be effectively gagged from commenting on China's politics, human rights abuses or illegal occupation of Tibet...
Yesterday the British Olympic Association (BOA) confirmed to The Mail on Sunday that any athlete who refuses to sign the agreements will not be allowed to travel to Beijing. Should a competitor agree to the clause but then speak their mind about China, they will be put on the next plane home...
New Zealand and Belgium have already adopted similar policies but others have adamantly refused to cave in to the Communist thugs. For instance, the United States, Canada, Finland, and Australia have already insisted that they will require no such pledge from their Olympic athletes.And kudos to Prince Charles who has said he will not be attending the games, even if he gets a gilt-edged invitation. Charles, a long-time supporter of Tibet's Dalai Lama, has been outspoken in his criticism of the Chinese government, once calling them “appalling old waxworks.”
David Mellor's column, also in the Daily Mail, addresses this issue too as he asks "Why do we still suck up to dictators?" That column is here.
