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Olympic organisers condemn pro-Tibet activists

ABC

Activists hang a ‘Free Tibet’ banner from China’s CCTV building in Beijing.ABC/China

An Australian woman was arrested as part of the group who hung the banner on the construction site for the city’s new China Central Television (CCTV) tower.

Wang Wei from the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) says the protesters are detracting from the sporting event.

“This is a very unwelcome and unacceptable kind of activity in China,” he said.

“Everybody in China knows that Tibet is an inalienable part of the territory of China.

“I see actually most of the people in these demonstrations are non-Chinese. So I would conclude they don’t really know very much about the situation.”

Mr Wang said the media should not encourage the protesters.

“It’s only through mutual understanding that we can have peace in the world and we can actually have a better chance of trying to solve issues and not stir up further trouble,” he said.

Meanwhile, there were more tensions between reporters and Games organisers at the daily Olympic press briefing this morning.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokeswoman Giselle Davies defended herself against claims that she would deflect difficult questions for fear of offending the Games’ Chinese hosts.

“Ask me a straight question and I’ll try and answer it,” she said.

Ms Davies was yesterday accused by a journalist of failing to answer a question on whether “broken promises” over China’s hosting of the games had been embarrassing for the IOC.

Copyright © 2008 ABC

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