Chinese police detain journalists at RSF press conference in Beijing

Police briefly detained journalists at a rare protest Monday in Beijing, after they covered a news conference featuring an advocacy group demanding greater press freedom in China.

A plainclothes officer at right tries to prevent a photographer from taking a photo of a Chinese police officer questioning two journalists near the headquarters of the Beijing Olympics planning committee seen in the background in Beijing, Monday, August 6, 2007. Police roughed up journalists at a rare protest Monday in Beijing, staged by RSF which accuses the government of failing to meet promises for greater media freedom one year ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

The detentions, which came during a visit to Beijing by International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge, followed the unfurling of posters depicting the Olympic rings made from handcuffs by members of Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) on a pedestrian bridge outside the headquarters of the Beijing Olympics planning committee.

After the event, uniformed and plainclothes police swooped in and refused to allow a number of journalists to leave. Some cameramen were asked to turn over their disks, but refused. The group was released after almost two hours. The organisation's leaders had managed to slip away, acording to reports.

"We've been talking about the problem of human rights and freedom of expression in China for so many years," said Vincent Brossel, head of the group's Asia desk, who participated. "Now we feel with the Olympic Games coming, it's time for the government to act."

From a pedestrian bridge high above afternoon traffic, Robert Menard, the organisation's secretary-general, Brossel and two others, unfurled posters depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs, underscored by the words "Beijing 2008." Menard said, "The official slogan `One world, one dream' sounds more and more hollow. Beijing has not kept its promises to improve the human rights situation."

Members of Reporters sans Frontières, from right Vincent Brossel and Robert Menard unfurl posters depicting the Olympic rings made from handcuffs on a pedestrian bridge outside the headquarters of the Beijing Olympics planning committee seen at right in Beijing, China, Monday, August 6, 2007. Police roughed up journalists at a rare protest Monday in Beijing, staged by the free-press advocacy group that accuses the government of failing to meet promises for greater media freedom one year ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Fernando Castello, RSF's Spanish president, and Rubina Möhring, its Austrian vice-president, urged IOC president Rogge to take action. “The IOC’s president now has a year to obtain what he has not yet even requested - the release of the imprisoned journalists and cyber-dissidents, an end to Internet censorship, and the ability for foreign correspondents to move about China freely,” Castello said.

In 2001, when China successfully bid for the 2008 Olympics, it said reporters would have "complete freedom to report." But RSF says said that has not happened. It handed out lists of Chinese journalists and online dissidents now in jail.