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HONG KONG - GLOBAL media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Monday they had been banned from entering mainland China, branding it the world's biggest prison for journalists.
Five activists from RSF unfurled a banner outside the representative office of the Chinese government in Hong Kong with the Olympic rings replaced by handcuffs, to coincide with international human rights day, two days after they were refused visas.
'China is the biggest jail in the world for journalists and with the Olympic Games coming, it is the right time to do something about it,' said Mr Robert Menard, secretary-general of RSF.
Mr Menard said that around 33 journalists and 49 cyber-dissidents were currently serving sentences in appalling conditions on trumped-up charges of 'subversion' or 'disseminating state secrets.' The group was blocked from entering China from Hong Kong two days ago, Mr Vincent Brossel from RSF's Asia desk said. They had planned to unfurl the banner in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
'We know that some of us are blacklisted by the Chinese immigration services,' RSF said in a statement.
'At a time when the government is compiling files on foreign journalists and human rights activists in advance of the Olympic Games, this refusal is evidence of its determination to keep critics at a distance.' In August, police searched the hotel of four members of RSF campaigners visiting Beijing for a protest, after earlier detaining about a dozen journalists covering the event.
China's communist rulers have trumpeted what they call the lifting of restrictions on foreign journalists ahead of the 2008 Olympics, but media rights groups say harassment and intimidation continue. -- AFP
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