Ahead of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, RSF report The Great Leap Backwards of Journalism in China now available in 10 languages

On the occasion of the 24th Winter Olympic Games, starting on 4th February 2022 in China, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) makes The Great Leap Backwards of Journalism in China available to new readers. Published last month in English and French, the document, which reveals the unprecedented campaign of repression led by the Chinese regime in recent years against journalism and the right to information worldwide, is now also available in Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), German, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

“President Xi Jinping expects the Winter Olympics to contribute to the restoration of his shredded reputation despite the massive crackdown he is performing on press freedom and the right to information,” says RSF East Asia Bureau head, Cédric Alviani, who calls on democracies to “build up pressure to dissuade the Beijing regime from pursuing its repressive policies”.

The 82-page report examines the regime’s tools of repression against journalists and foreign correspondents in China and the deterioration of press freedom in Hong Kong, a territory once considered a model for press freedom. It also details Beijing’s strategy to control access of information beyond its borders, while presenting appeals and recommendations to the Chinese authorities, foreign governments, international institutions, journalists, and media outlets.

The People's Republic of China ranks 177th out of 180 in the 2021 RSF World Press Freedom Index, only two places above North Korea, being the world's largest captor of journalists with at least 128 detained. The special administrative region of Hong Kong has slipped from 18th place, upon the index’s creation in 2002, to 80th place in 2021.

Read the report