§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether any progress has been made towards ending the jamming of the BBC's short wave Mandarin radio transmissions, and on unblocking access by Chinese citizens to the BBC News website; and whether they will take steps, in collaboration with other like-minded states, to establish a website on China's restrictions on freedom of expression, so that journalists planning to visit China for the Olympic Games are aware of the problems they may face. [HL91]
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)We regularly raise with the Chinese authorities the jamming of the BBC World Service Chinese Language Service and the blocking of access to the BBC News website. We did so most recently at the 10th round of the UK/China Human Rights Dialogue in Beijing on 10–11 November. We shall continue to press the Chinese on this issue and on our concerns about the lack of freedom of expression in China more generally. We have no plans to create a website on China's freedom of expression.