Last modified: 2024-03-03 by 
zachary harden
Keywords: olympic games | protest | tibet |
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![[handcuffs protest flag]](../images/o/oly_cuff.jpg)
image
located by John Udics, 7 April 2008
An interesting flag is depicted on a BBC news webpage dealing with a
pro-Tibet protest at the lighting of the flame for this year's Olympic
baton run in Greece. The flag, shown at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7310654.stm appears to show
the Olympic rings in white on black, with the bottom two rings formed out
of a pair of handcuffs.
James Dignan, 24 March 2008
The flag was designed by "Reporters sans frontières" (RSF), an association
founded by Robert Ménard in 1985, aiming at the defense of the freedom of
press. Every year in January, RSF publishes an account of the freedom of
press in the world, listing the reporters killed or jailed the least year
and the censored medias. RSF was awarded in 2005 the Sakharov Prize by the
European Parliament.
The handcuff flag is part of the RSF campaign
for the freedom of press in China. The flag can be seen in full on the RSF
website. The white text below "Beijing 2008" is "Reporters Without
Borders", the English translation of the association's name:
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24684
The handcuff
flag was shown for the first time on 15 October 2007 in front of the
Olympic Museum in Lausanne (Switzerland), to "celebrate" the inauguration
of the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing:
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=23986.
The first
version of the flag was in French ("Pékin 2008" / "Reporters sans
frontières"), as shown on the photography of the event by Nicholas
Ratzenboek (AFP)
http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/International/2007/10/16/007-RSF-classement.shtml?ref=rss
Ivan Sache, 19 April 2009
![[handcuffs protest flag]](../images/o/oly@cuff.jpg)
image located by Terence
Martin, 10 February 2009
Today's Wall Street Journal covered protests against the amount of money
being spent on the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, claiming the money
would be better spent on social programs aimed at poverty. The flag turns
each ring on the Olympic flag into a handcuff:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123423535627866521.html
Terence
Martin, 10 February 2009
From
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=7556&t=1&c=1:
"Police,
protesting Tibetans clash AP[Monday, August 30, 2004 18:35]
By ELENA
BECATOROS
ATHENS, Greece August 29 - Tibetan protesters and police briefly
scuffled at the main Olympic stadium complex Sunday, just hours before
organizers of the 2008 Beijing Games were to receive the Olympic flag at the
closing ceremony. After passing through a security checkpoint, six activists
from the International Tibet Support Network unfurled a black flag with five
bullet holes replacing the Olympic rings, and began marching toward the main
stadium. They were stopped by about two dozen police and security guards who
seized the flag in a brief scuffle. Olympic rules forbid political banners in
venues...
"We feel that this is the flag that Beijing truly deserves,"
spokesman Tenzin Sewo said."
It's accompanied of a photograph showing
what may be a flag, with a photograph of five bullet holes in a three over two
pattern with a black stripe of approximately 1/6th of the width along the top
and bottom, bit with white lettering. The top text says: "China plays games
with human rights"; the bottom one says: "www.2008-FreeTibet.org". The
photograph of the flag has the caption:
"Activists from the International
Tibet Support Network display a banner with five bullet holes replacing the
Olympic rings in the sport complex of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens on
Sunday, Aug. 29, 2004. In the evening the organizers of the 2008 Beijing Games
will receive the Olympic flag. (Ap Photo/Petros Giannakouris)"
Peter
Hans van den Muijzenberg, 3 April 2008
At
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080318.wsptoly18/BNStory/International:
The caption of the photograph says:
"A Tibetan demonstrator is seen
near a flag representing the Beijing Olympics during a protest in Siliguri on
Tuesday. (Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images)"
And what we see of that
"flag" in the background is a near-blood red field with what would be the chain
of rings in the order blue, orange, black, brown and red, with at least the
orange and red being outlined in grey. However, the black ring is broken at the
top and bottom and already slightly pulled apart, with one small bit exactly at
the top remaining in place, put two other bits falling down through what would
normally be the heart of the black ring. The reason that the middle ring is
broken might be that there are two hands pulling the rings apart, as something
in grey seems to be holding the places where the pairs of outer rings cross at
the bottom, but this is where the photograph is cut. What it is we don't see,
and whether it's really a flag, I don't know, and I can't easily find a wider
image.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 4 April 2008
![[The Olympic flag]](../images/o/oly@bov!.gif)
image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 6 December 2023
In late 2008 was held in Saint Juste le Martel (dep. Haute-Vienne, in
France) the 27th International Show of Caricature, Cartoon and Humor
(_27.? Salon international de la Caricature, du Dessin de presse et
d’humour_) and its promotional poster includes a cow — which, as the
show’s mascot, is an often sight. This one cow is shown as the winner,
sitting on a number one podium, of some unspecified athletic event:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180629131033/http://www.imultimedia.pt/museuvirtpress/eventuais/daumier/saint_just/logo.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint-Just_2008.JPG
On the background of the illustration a modified Olympic flag is shown,
with the usual circular rings reshaped to show horns, like a stylized
cow head profile. Although this flag is shown with its hoist side at the
veiwer’s left hand, the whole design is reversed, with the red and green
rings at the hoist and the blue and yellow ones at the fly.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 6 December 2023
