The request comes in an open letter from rights groups representing minorities in China, including Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kong residents and others
Some of the world바카라s largest broadcasters including American network NBC are being asked by human rights groups to cancel plans to cover next year바카라s Winter Olympics in Beijing. The Winter Games are scheduled to open on February 4. (More Sports News)
The request comes in an open letter from rights groups representing minorities in China, including Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kong residents and others.
The letter, obtained by this agency, was sent Tuesday to NBC Universal chief executive officer Jeff Shell and other international broadcast executives. NBC is paying USD 7.75 billion for the rights to the next six Olympics and works closely as a partner with the Switzerland-based International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Those payments are estimated to account for up to 40 per cent of the IOC바카라s total income. The letter says the broadcasters risk 바카라being complicit바카라 in the 바카라worsening human rights abuses바카라 in China. The letter comes just days after the delayed Summer Olympics and Paralympics wrapped up in Tokyo, putting the focus on the IOC and its choice of Beijing.
The IOC has repeatedly said it is only a sports body and its president Thomas Bach has declined to address or condemn the treatment of Uyghurs or other minorities in China. The IOC is also facing calls for a boycott, pressure on some of its 15 top sponsors, and some athletes speaking of the difficult situation they face.
A vice president of one major IOC sponsor, Intel, has said he concurs with the assessment that genocide is taking place.
바카라All of your companies are at serious risk of being complicit in China's plan to sport wash' the severe and worsening human rights abuses and embolden the actions of the Chinese authorities,바카라 the open letter reads. 바카라By broadcasting Beijing 2022 your companies will legitimize these abuses and promote what is being widely described as the Genocide Games'.바카라
China's foreign ministry has repeatedly criticized what it calls the 바카라politicization of sports바카라 and has said any Olympic boycott is 바카라doomed to failure바카라. It has also denied committing genocide against the Uyghur people, describing the charges as the 바카라lie of the century바카라.
The Beijing Olympics are likely to be held with few fans, and media are likely to be segregated from athletes with little possibility of free movement. The rationale will be the ongoing pandemic.
The IOC has declined several recent calls to move the Olympics out of Beijing. China is accused by some foreign governments and researchers of imposing forced labor, systematically forced birth control and torture upon Uyghurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group Xinjiang, a region in the country's west.
Lhadon Tethong, co-chair of the International Tibet Network, said Canadian broadcaster CBC, Britain's BBC and ARD in Germany, which all receive public money, should not move forward with any broadcast plans. She urged the public in those countries to speak up.
바카라It is unconscionable that NBC, CBC and other broadcasters plan to help Chinese leaders project a rosy image of an Olympic Games as usual' while they are carrying out genocide against the Uyghurs, and engaging in a massive campaign of repression against Tibetans and so many others,바카라 Tethong said.
The IOC included human rights requirements several years ago in the host city contract for the 2024 Paris Olympics, but it did not include those guidelines - the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights - for Beijing.