Officials to review gag on Olympic athletes | World news | The Guardian - The Diigo Meta page

• 15 Feb 08
  

  At the Money

  China Politics Olympics

  • The contract for Beijing contains a new clause preventing athletes from commenting "on any politically sensitive issues" as a condition of their membership of the British team. The clause appears to go further than the requirements of the Olympic charter to which athletes are subject, which requires competitors to refrain from "any kind of demonstration or engaging in any political, religious or racial propaganda at Olympic sites".
  • Pete Gardner, chief executive of the British Athletes' Commission, said the organisation had no objections to the gagging clause in the Beijing contract and that no athletes had approached him with concerns. "Any athlete going to China with the overt intention of making a political statement would not in our view be fully focused on the job in hand ... and would not be going for the right reasons."

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