News at Eleven: When the IOC voted to award these games

to China in 2001, it knew that the issue of human rights would be at the heart of the event. But, throughout the seven long years from the vote until the start of the games, the IOC and its president, Jacques Rogge, proved incapable of getting the Chinese authorities to make lasting improvements in respect for freedom of expression.

The IOC had an obligation to ensure respect for the Olympic Charter, which says sport must serve "the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity." It is guilty of a serious dereliction of duty.

from Reporters Without Borders: Olympic disaster for free expression in China: Reporters Without Borders condemns Chinese government cynicism and IOC inability to ensure respect for charter

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