Australia backs athletes’ right to speak out, labels Beijing’s threats ‘very concerning’

Singapore: Sports Minister Richard Colbeck says Australian athletes should be free to express their political opinions at next month’s Winter Olympics, despite Beijing’s warning that they faced “certain punishment” if they break Chinese restrictions on freedom of speech.

Colbeck, who will not be travelling to Beijing in February as part of a diplomatic boycott of the Games by the United States, Australia, Britain and Canada, urged athletes to respect Chinese laws but said the International Olympic Committee guaranteed freedom of speech in its host contract.

“The IOC has made it clear that all athletes have the right to political opinions and the freedom to express them including through social media and media interviews,” he said.

Sports Minister Richard Colbeck Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“Any threat aimed at Australian athletes for speaking out, therefore, is very concerning and is not at all supported by the Australian government.”

The Beijing Olympic Committee warned this week that dedicated departments would be able to punish athletes who protest at the Games, raising fears for the thousands of international competitors on their way to Beijing.

“Any expression that is in line with the Olympic spirit I’m sure will be protected,” said Yang Shu, the BOC’s deputy director-general of international relations.

“Any behaviour or speech that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against the Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment.”

China faces ongoing allegations of human rights abuse with an estimated 1 million Uighurs Muslims detained in re-education camps in Xinjiang, dozens of pro-democracy leaders in Hong Kong behind bars, and scores of leading government critics in China arrested for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. Chinese Olympian Peng Shuai, who made allegations of sexual assault against former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli in November, has not been independently contacted since.

A statue celebrates the Olympics in Beijing. The 2022 Winter Olympics start on February 4Credit: Sanghee Liu

National Olympic committees and human rights groups are advising athletes not to protest while in Beijing, warning it could expose them to arbitrary local laws that prevent freedom of political expression and operate within a justice system that convicts 99 per cent.

Protests were banned at the Games until the IOC amended the Olympic charter before the Tokyo Olympics last year to add rule 50.2.  It allows athletes to express their views when they are being introduced to spectators, at press conferences, or through social media, but not on the podiums or during competition.

Human rights lawyers have criticised the IOC for not tying the amendments to international law, leaving their interpretation on issues such as freedom of speech open to the laws of the host country.

Craig Foster, an Amnesty International human rights ambassador, and a former Australian football player said the IOC had left athletes exposed.

“That those athletes who carry these values in their sporting and broader life are subject to penalty by the Chinese government for exposing the egregious abuse of Uighurs, for example, demonstrates that the IOC is nothing more than a vessel for the regimes and corporations filling their coffers,” he said.

“There is no underlying principle of human solidarity, only of financial growth.”

Abdulla Shahid, the President of the United Nations General Assembly, on Friday appealed to members to respect the Olympic Truce over the course of the Olympics and Paralympics. The truce calls on member states to avoid conflict during the Games and promotes a “peaceful future for all humankind through the educational value of sport”.

“Today’s solemn appeal is another demonstration of the support for the political neutrality of the Olympic Games,” the IOC said in a statement.

Last month, 20 countries refused to sign the truce, including the United States, India, Australia, Japan and Turkey amid growing concerns about China’s human rights record.

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