Whatever the results of the World Championships, China will still be 176th

To mark the start of the tournament tomorrow, RSF is distributing a campaign visual that shows a hand holding a medal with barbed wire instead of ribbon and the slogan: “Whatever the results of the World Championships, China will still be 176th.” The aim of this campaign – designed by the ad agency BETC, an RSF partner – is to draw attention to the fact that around 100 journalists and netizens are currently rotting in Chinese prisons, far from the clamour of the stadiums. They include Gao Yu, a well-known journalist whose health has declined alarmingly in detention. After the Olympic Committee’s decision to choose Beijing to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, these Athletics World Championships in the Chinese capital are another example of the lack of concern about human rights violations. China is ranked 176th out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.