Media freedom pledge ignored in Xinjiang

By Ben Blanchard

KASHGAR, China (Reuters) - When China applied to host the 2008 Olympic Games, organisers famously pledged complete media freedom, to the general bemusement of rights groups who regularly berate the Communist state for locking up reporters.

While the tightly controlled state media have been excluded from that pledge, restrictions on foreign reporters have been greatly eased in the run-up to the Beijing Games, which open on August 8. Yet many problems remain.

Local governments have been happy to welcome foreigners to cover the Olympic torch relay as it makes its way through China after a less than successful international leg that was dogged by protests in the wake of violence in Tibet in March.

Happy, that is, until the torch arrived in the sensitive far western region of Xinjiang where Beijing accuses ethnic-minority Muslim Uighur militants of working with al Qaeda to use terrorism to push for an independent state called East Turkestan.

The local government had originally told visiting foreign reporters they would be allowed to talk to people lining the streets as the torch passed through the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, largely populated by Uighurs.

But the day before the relay, reporters were told they would be banned from talking to anyone on the route and could only attend highly choreographed opening and closing ceremonies.

"Don't be angry, we are still giving you reporting freedom," one official told Reuters.

"It's for your reporting convenience," another added, defending the restrictions and explaining that it was to make life easier with so many people expected to turn up.