The British Olympic Association (BOA) has decided that it needs to protect China’s feelings from British Olympic athletes:
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.
In case you’re wondering, no, neither the US, France, Australia, South Africa, or most any other civilized country imposes such requirements on its athletes.
kd
Has BOA forgotten how many thousands of British men and women gave their lives in ww11 and other conflicts so that we retained the right to freedom of speech. I seems to me that they want to regress….so wrong!
Carla
My word to the BOA — bawk, bawk, bawk!! What cowardice to forbid commentary by free people for fear of upsetting the Chinese. They’re big boys and girls. They can deal with a little criticism and might take the hint that continued abuse of human rights will forever marginalize them as major world players.