24 August 2008
47 Tibet activists arrested during Games
(RSF) At least 47 foreign pro-Tibetan activists are reported to have been expelled and 22 foreign journalists detained or manhandled by police or other authorities during the Beijing Olympics. The Paris-based media monitor group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said among those detained were two American video bloggers sentenced to 10-day prison terms for "disrupting public order". At least 50 Beijing-based human rights activists had been detained, harassed or forced to leave the Chinese capital, it said. In China, Beijing Public Security Bureau (PSB) spokesperson Wang Wenjie declined to comment about the report, saying he did not have overall figures. RSF's leader Robert Menard said the Chinese authorities' pre-Games pledges "about media freedom and the right to protest were an illusion".