Get On the Bus
Geoffrey York of the Globe and Mail writes about the official press tour of Lhasa as the Olympic torch relay passed through. Twenty-nine international media organizations were apparently invited on the tour, but not a single newspaper from the U.S. or Britain was included:
Every moment was pre-programmed. To ensure that we didn’t miss anything, we were given unsolicited wake-up calls at 6:15 a.m., urging us out of bed and into the program.
We were lodged in a government hotel, far from the historic centre of Lhasa, to make it even harder for us to have any independent contact with monks or other malcontents.
At the allocated time for dinner on Friday, I managed to slip away from the hotel and hail a taxi to the old town, where I was able to see the massive security presence, including thousands of paramilitary police in camouflage uniforms, in advance of the Olympic torch relay the next day. There were paramilitary troops and regular police on every corner.
A few other journalists also slipped away from the hotel. The next day, we were reprimanded by a government minder, who claimed to be worried about our personal safety. “This is Lhasa,” she warned ominously. “You could get lost, you could be detained. It could happen anywhere, particularly Lhasa. When you’re out, we’re really concerned. Anything could happen.”
Origin: Geoffrey York, Globe and Mail
