IOC To China: Don't Hinder Journalists

The International Olympic Committee criticized Chinese security officials who detained and manhandled a British journalist as he was covering a pro-Tibet protest on Wednesday.

"The IOC does disapprove of any attempts to hinder a journalist who is going about doing his job seemingly within the rules and regulations," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies told a daily press briefing Thursday in Beijing. "This, we hope, has been addressed. We don't want to see this happening again."

John Ray, a Beijing correspondent for Britain's Independent Television Network, was set upon by police at the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, near the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium. They pinned his arms, took away his shoes and phone and threw him into a police van, even though he repeatedly shouted that he was a journalist.

An official from the Beijing Public Security Bureau told the Associated Press that officers mistook Ray for an activist. The eight protesters he had been trying to cover, seven Americans and a Japanese citizen who is half-Tibetan, have been deported.

The incident is among several examples of foreign journalists being blocked from reporting in China, despite government and Olympic official promises the media would be free to operate in the country during the Games.

IOC To China: Don't Hinder Journalists....