Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Athlete Defies the 'Gagging' Clause
Well done to British badminton olympic hopeful Richard Vaughan. He has ignored the BOA gagging clause and called on China to do more to help solve the crisis in Dafur. He suggested that China used its trade links to put much needed pressure on the Sudanese government. The BOA really do need to be sensible about this and allow athletes to express their views on issues of conscience. No one wants to insult the olympic hosts, but calling on them to do something to aid humanitarian efforts is surely allowed.
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Hey what's with this wanabe-politician Dale guy? A few posts back he says politicians are only real politicians if they can learn their lines - actors if you will. Now he wants sportsmen to do politics.
Is it the jet lag or what?
Its not that anon (5:21PM), I agree with Iain on this one. Sportsmen staying away from politics is one thing, having a gag put on them is something else. It would have been better if it was made clear that if any athlete gave an opinion outside their sphere, it was as an individual, not as part of the British Olympic Team.
I understood that the British Olympic Association backtracked on that one?
http://www.newsobserver.com/1577/story/935585.html
It'll be Moscow 1980 all over again.
I wonder if there would be such enthusiasm, or indeed coverage at all, if sportsmen had spoken out on our own contempt for human rights.
On second thoughts no I don't. Remember all the news coverage & fuss from MPs when Bobby Fisher was not merely gagged but imprisoned for visiting Yugoslavia? Me neither (though I do remember a lot of media coverage of his opponent Kasparov who is being treated infinitely better by his government.
Does anybody seriously suggest that any Chinese politician has not demonstrated far more respect for human rights by their behaviour in Tibet than almost all British ones have by their active assistance in genocide in Krajina & Kosovo & of child sex slavery in Kosovo. Or that the fascist propagandists running the BBC are going to get round to reporting this genocide.
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