Olympic networks win right to broadcast from Tiananmen Square
Last Updated: Friday, June 20, 2008 | 4:16 AM ET
Simon Dingley CBC News
TV networks planning to broadcast from the Beijing Olympics this summer appear to have overcome a major hurdle.
Tiananmen Square has been a magnet for protesters for decades. (Oded Balilty/Associated Press)All networks, including CBC, which have paid a rights-holders fee will be allowed to broadcast live from Tiananmen Square during the games.
China's Olympic organizing committee had been refusing to allow any live broadcasts from the square.
"The Tiananmen square issue is one of the big victories," said Scott Moore, executive director of CBC Sports. "They have guaranteed us now that we will be able to broadcast live from Tiananmen Square. We have no reason to believe it won't happen."
Late last month, the world's TV rights-holders held two days of closed-door meetings with Chinese Olympic officials in Beijing. Moore said the Chinese were "immovable and inflexible" on the first day. But he said after the broadcasters passionately voiced their concerns, the Chinese had a change of heart.
"As rights-holders, we impressed upon the organizing committee that we're not there necessarily to embarrass anybody, but we felt very strongly, whatever happens at the Games, we have not only rights that we've paid for, but a right as journalists to cover that," said Moore.
Moore would not say how much CBC paid to be a rights-holder in Beijing. NBC Television paid $900 million US to broadcast the games from Beijing. NBC Olympic president Gary Zenkel, reached by phone in New York, refused to confirm the Tiananmen Square broadcast agreement with the Chinese.
"I can't tell you. No comment," he said.
But Trevor Pilling, CBC's Olympic executive producer, confirmed he has already booked at least five time slots during the Olympics when CBC will broadcast live from the square.
"The first one will come during the opening ceremonies, the pre-Olympic show," said Pilling.
Symbolic site of pro-democracy movement
Chinese officials did not respond to repeated e-mails from CBCNews.ca requesting comment. It's believed the Chinese originally did not want live shots from Tiananmen Square, fearing the world might tune in and see protests being broadcast live during China's coming big celebration.
Tiananmen Square is the symbolic site of the pro-democracy movement. In 1989, it was the scene of a bloody massacre and crackdown by Chinese troops on students demonstrating for greater freedoms.
The decision to allow live broadcasts from the site could lead to potential friction between China's government and western media organizations that are used to freedom of expression, said Rick Horrow, a professor of sports law at Harvard University.
"The western media have spent a tremendous amount of money on this," Horrow told CBC News. "There may be a battle between the rights-holders and a totalitarian government which wants to put its best foot forward, but may not know how."
In January 2007, the Chinese government relaxed its restrictions on journalists. It promised reporters "complete freedom to report" in China. But this past March, when riots broke out in Chinese-controlled Tibet, foreign reporters were not allowed to visit the region. Eventually they were allowed to enter, during a Chinese-government staged visit.
In March 2008, the state run China Daily newspaper reported the Chinese government had created profiles on thousands of foreign journalists, which had been stored in a database.
Moore said he isn't worried that the Chinese may pull the plug on foreign broadcasts if political tensions heat up. He met with Canada's Ambassador to China to get a sense of what might happen.
"He assured me that he felt the Chinese are very sensitive to what is broadcast in China," Moore said. "He said they're not going to be as sensitive to what's broadcast outside China.
"I don't expect the Chinese would want the political fallout, the public relations fallout, of ever censoring or disrupting an international broadcast."
But just in case, Moore admitted the CBC has a contingency plan to get news material out of China if the politics boil over and the Chinese government tries to shut down broadcasts.
