HONG KONG (AFP) — Three pro-Tibet campaigners and a freedom of speech advocate have been prevented from entering Hong Kong ahead of the Olympic torch relay through the city, supporters and groups said.
Two members of Students for a Free Tibet and a press officer with the Free Tibet Campaign, Matt Whitticase, were denied entry to the southern Chinese territory on Tuesday, the groups said in statements.
The move comes after three other protesters were also barred from entering the city Saturday, sparking criticism about the commitment of Hong Kong, which colonial power Britian returned to Chinese rule in 1997, to freedom of speech.
"2008 is the year that China is supposed to be opening up to the world in anticipation of the Olympics. But everywhere one looks, China is slamming the door in the face of free expression," Whitticase said.
"Tourists are being refused entry to Tibet, journalists are being prevented from reporting freely from Tibet, Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai (provinces) and now I have been denied entry to Hong Kong."
Whitticase was scheduled to talk to journalists about the humanitarian situation in Tibet during his visit, before he was flown back to London.
Two Canadians from Students for a Free Tibet -- Tsering Lama and Kate Woznow -- were also detained and sent back to New York, the group said in a separate statement on their website.
Zhang Yu, general secretary of the writers' group Independent China Pen Centre, was also prevented from entering the territory after flying in from Sweden, the Hong Kong Journalists' Association (HKJA) told AFP.
"No reason was given for why he was sent out. He was only coming for a long-planned press freedom conference," said Mak Yin-ting, general secretary of the HKJA.
The torch was set to return to Chinese soil in Hong Kong Wednesday after its long and often troubled journey around the world ahead of the Games in Beijing.
Hong Kong, with its freedom of expression laws, is expected to be a target for protestors hoping to vent a list of anti-China grievances when the torch is paraded through the city on Friday.
American actress Mia Farrow, who is pushing China to help stop violence in Sudan's conflict-riven Darfur region, is also expected in Hong Kong.
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