Sjoerd den Daas
@sjoerddendaas
Thanks to all who have been following the incident last night during the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony. I wanted to clarify some facts about what happened.
Shortly before 7 o’clock, we began filming around the Bird's Nest. The police kindly directed us outside the area that was being cordoned off around that time. We followed their orders. We then spent some time setting up to film a TV live at the place the police had just referred us to. However, just after we had gone live, I was forcefully pulled out of the picture without any warning by a plainclothes man wearing a red badge that read, "Public Safety Volunteer." He did not identify himself.
At the same time, another man took our light installation. When asked, they couldn't say what we had done wrong. We were able to continue our TV live from a parking lot around the corner.
In recent weeks, we, like several foreign colleagues, have been hindered or stopped several times by the police while reporting on subjects related to the Games.
Therefore, it’s hard to see last night's incident as an isolated incident, as the IOC claims, although such interference rarely happens live on broadcast. And now back to work.
