Sports Are Meant To Showcase The Best, Not The Worst

Michael Hedges December 1, 2021 Follow on Twitter

An enduring pleasure in the lives of many is being a sports fan. This manifests itself in many ways, largely positive. Individual athletes become role models. Teams are sources of pride. Within the daily grind of many light distractions are welcome. The media world has contributed greatly to this and been duly compensated.

Big events attract big attention and seriously huge events literally stop people in the streets. In the great scheme of things this truly adds to social well-being. The Olympic Games and the Football World Cup are global events at the top of that list. Sports reporters for every media platform vie - literally and figuratively - for the best angles. Their readers, listeners and viewers expect this and more; back-stories and color always popular.

Event organizers, teams and even individual participants are in the spotlight, building lucrative powerful brands and earning fortunes. With that also comes the inquiring eye of journalism. Some of those back-stories offer more than just colorful panoramas. This can be quite uncomfortable.

In about two months, 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games opens in Beijing, China. About 3,000 reporters on short-term visas have been accredited for Olympic venues but foreign reporters are relegated to a “closed loop” within which they must remain for the duration, officially established to monitor coronavirus infections. Another 2,000 on resident visas without Olympic accreditation can use the new Media Center, where press releases will be distributed, occasional interviews offered and city bus tours organized. Chinese authorities have made quite clear that reporters and news crews are not welcome to just roam around.

Noting the “bubble” created to isolate reporters, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC) complained to the Beijing Organizing Committee and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over “tremendous uncertainty over how and if foreign correspondents will be able to cover the Games,” reported Bloomberg (November 2). “This is a stark contrast to the coverage which was possible during the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics and deprives the world of informative coverage from across China.” In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the “ministry didn’t believe the group (FCCC) represented foreign reporters in China.”

And this was before worldwide coverage of Chinese tennis pro Peng Shuai who had accused a major Communist Party of China (CPC) official of sexual assault then disappeared. A video with Ms Shuai and IOC president Thomas Bach emerged thereafter saying she was fine and not to worry. Skeptics howled. "Her recent public reappearance does not ease concerns about her safety and freedom,” said a European Union spokesperson, quoted by Deutsche Welle (November 30).

Press/media freedom advocate Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) warned this week (November 29) that journalists and media workers covering the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games need to “protect themselves” against surveillance. That coincided with a Reuters report of authorities in Henan province contracting for facial recognition cameras and software, described as “dystopian,” specifically to identify journalists and other “suspicious people.” The tender document, issued in July and obtained by Reuters, noted that "suspicious persons must be tailed and controlled, dynamic research analyses and risk assessments made, and the journalists dealt with according to their category.”

"The Olympic Games provide President Xi Jinping with a dream opportunity to restore his image and try to make people forget his catastrophic human rights records, including press freedom and the right to information,” said RSF East Asia Bureau chief Cédric Alviani. “It is legitimate for the media to cover this major international event, but they must be wary of the regime’s manipulation attempts and protect their journalists from surveillance and possible pressure.” RSF recommends news outlets covering the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games “do everything possible to prevent the risk of external pressure, whether political or economic, and denounce any editorial interference you experience.” RSF will publish "The Great Leap Backwards of Journalism in China” later this month detailing further recommendations.

See also...

• Hot Topics - Media in China

• Hot Topics - Censorship

• Hot Topics - Sports and Media