First Non-Sports News During Olympics

August 8, 2008

Suggesting that NBC and other media outlets covering the Beijing Olympics will have much more than sports to report about during the next 17 days, a pirate radio station went on the air in the Chinese capital early today (Friday), just 12 hours before the start of the opening ceremonies. The station, broadcasting in both English and Mandarin Chinese, was apparently set up by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders. It demanded the release of reporters held in prison in China for defying the country's Communist rulers. "China is the country of censorship, and this program is our way of making fun of the Chinese authorities who still keep hundreds of journalists and Internet users in prison," a voice on the station said, adding that the broadcast was "our way of saying: 'Whatever measures you take you will never be able to abolish the right to free speech.'"