The Beijing Olympics – torchbearers beware!

During the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the torchbearers in various countries were sometimes subject to protests from those seeking more human rights in China. This included spectators running into the path of the torchbearers and trying to grab the torch. As part of the media search for views and opinions from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge (the IOC Chairman) was ‘ambushed’ by a number of reporters at the same time in what appeared to be his hotel lobby.

The main question from the reporters was ‘Should the torch continue to travel around the world?’

The British BBC and China’s CCTV both showed different clips of the same interview, with the BBC clip lasting around one minute and the CCTV clip lasting around two. The BBC’s report seemed to suggest some significant concerns about the process of sending the torch out to other countries and the protests that were taking place, whilst the CCTV report seemed to praise China’s willingness to do something new and to reach out to the rest of the world in line with its ‘One world, one dream’ Olympic slogan.

Could both clips have been accurate? Were the clips used in an objective way?