Pal Schmitt has done something that no other IOC member has publically dared to to:
Challenge the IOC on the issue of press freedom in China in the runup to the 2008 Games.
I say: Good Job, Sir!
Pal was involved in a very bitter election in 2001 for the IOC Presidency. He lost out to Jacques Rogge, who today was sent a letter fromt the President of Reporters Without Borders which in part said "your silence on this matter has enabled the abuses" of freedom of the press in relation to the Olympic preparations.
I said a couple of months ago it was going to take an IOC member to challenge Dr. Rogge on the issue of press freedom. I don't know if Mr. Schmitt reads this blog (he's probably too busy but thank you in advance if you do) but he's done the right thing, and it was a huge risk for him to step up and speak out. I only wish more IOC members would do so.
I wonder how long Jacques Rogge is going to stay silent on this matter. I hope it won't take the arrest of an IOC-accredited journalist during the Games next year for him to wake up and smell the problem. His peers certainly are speaking up.
It would behoove him to listen to the voices that are getting louder and louder on this issue.
What will it take for him to listen? Ideas, anyone?
