Plea to China to keep Olympics TV live

The International Olympic Committee has asked China to promise not to delay transmissions of the Beijing games, after France raised concerns about Chinese television’s censoring of Tibet protests at the torch-lighting ceremony in Greece this week.

French TV executives have asked the European Broadcasting Union to extract guarantees from Beijing that transmissions will be live and uninterrupted even if protests take place.

Neither the IOC nor the EBU said they had any grounds to believe Beijing would renege on pledges for live transmission made two years ago and reaffirmed in January.

But the fact that the matter is being raised again with Beijing underlines the IOC’s nervousness about relations with Chinese authorities and the difficulty of quelling European concerns.

The French stance on events in Tibet took a fresh turn on Thursday. Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, said he would consult European Union leaders on a possible boycott of the opening ceremony.

“At the time of the Olympics, I will be in the presidency of the European Union, so I have to sound out and consult my fellow members to see whether or not we should boycott,” he said.

Broadcasts of the torch ceremony were suspended after a disruption by media rights protesters based in France. That led to calls for a French boycott of coverage of the games if transmissions were censored.

International rights-holders will receive radio and TV feeds from Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, a joint venture between the Beijing organising committee and Olympic Broadcasting Services, a subsidiary of the IOC.

Manolo Romero, OBS chief executive, has been in Beijing for talks with the committee. “No doubt they will be asking for clarification on things such as the broadcasting of the torch ceremony and about delays in transmission,” the IOC said.