On 23 April 2008, Reporters Without Borders called for the
foreign news media to be allowed back immediately into Tibet and nearby
provinces with a Tibetan population, where the Chinese authorities have
maintained a news blackout and have been conducting a massive propaganda
campaign for the past six weeks.

"What is the Chinese government hiding behind Tibet's closed doors?" the
press freedom organisation asked. "Things are clearly far from being back
to normal, as the authorities claim. The few reports emerging suggest a
very different situation, one of arrests and a climate of fear in the
cities and around the monasteries."

Reporters Without Borders added: "The news blackout facilitates the work of
the government's propaganda machine but also the spread of rumours
encouraged by certain groups abroad. We appeal to the European Union and
the United Nations to try to get the government to allow foreign reporters
to travel freely in Tibet and the neighbouring regions."

On 22 April, the organisers of the Beijing Olympic Games announced that a
press trip to cover an attempt to take the Olympic torch to the top of
Everest was being postponed indefinitely. Reporters were supposed to have
gone to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa first to get adjusted to the altitude,
but the Lhasa stage of the trip has been cancelled altogether because of
"meteorological" problems, the authorities said. "Only coverage of the
torch relay will be allowed," an official said.

No journalist has been allowed to move about freely in Tibet and the
regions with a Tibetan population since 14 March. Two press trips were
organised by the authorities to Lhasa and to Labrang monastery in Gansu
province. Tourists have been banned from visiting the Himalayan region
until further notice.

Reporters Without Borders has learned of about 50 violations of the right
of foreign journalists to move about freely in the Tibetan regions since
mid-March.

The authorities have waged a massive propaganda campaign designed to
portray Tibetans as "rioters" and "terrorists." The official news agency
Xinhua's dispatches talk above all of a return to normal and the discovery
of weapons in Buddhist temples. Xinhua announced that the authorities have
found firearms, dynamite and satellite dishes in 11 monasteries in Gansu.

National and provincial TV stations have been asked to keep broadcasting
footage of violence by Tibetans in Lhasa or in the city of Aba in Sichuan
province, where Tibetans attacked public buildings.

To prevent the Tibetan population from getting access to uncensored news
reports, the authorities have stepped up the jamming of international radio
stations that broadcast in Tibetan such as Voice of Tibet and Radio Free
Asia. Violating international rules governing short and medium wave
broadcasting, the Chinese authorities transmit low-pitched noise on the
same frequencies as the foreign stations.

Voice of Tibet manager Oystein Alme told Reporters Without Borders: "We
have noted a significant increasing in jamming since 16 March, especially
in the cities where the government has invested tens of millions of dollars
to install antennae to prevent Tibetans from listening to us."

The propaganda campaign against the "Dalai Lama's clique" gets a lot of
space in the Chinese media based abroad. The state-owned CCTV's stations
that broadcast in foreign languages just show the violence by Tibetans and
never refer to the reprisals that followed. "Ouzhou Shibao" (News of
Europe), a newspaper based in France, published a full page on Tibet giving
the government's position.

Chinese Internet users and hackers are also harassing pro-Tibetan
organisations. The Tibetan government-in-exile's site was recently put out
of commission by a group of hackers based in China. And several foreign
news media, especially websites that allow visitors to post comments, are
being flooded with messages that repeat government propaganda word for
word.

The Chinese authorities have ordered the media to stick to the official
toll of 13 innocent civilians killed and 300 wounded by "rioters." The
Tibetan government-in-exile reported that about 100 Tibetans were killed
and hundreds were arrested. Some pro-Tibetan groups say thousands are being
held in camps where torture is practiced.

Updates the Tibet media and free expression clampdown case:
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/91902

Reporters Without Borders condemns the Chinese government's constant
criticism of the foreign media's coverage of the situation in Tibet. "Some
media deliberately misrepresent the facts and wrongly portray a hateful
crime as a peaceful demonstration," Tibetan communist leader Raidi said.