Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom - World Press ...

Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom
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West German Chancellor Willy Brandt was promoting his policy of “Opening to the East,”
and I told my German colleagues that if they wanted to change the image of Munich in
the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe from that of Hitler in beer halls to that of an Olympic
city, it was they who should be paying us to promote the change, not we who should be
paying them. My German colleagues were convinced by the argument, and we settled on
a price of $300,000. And the cooperation we got from the German side was excellent.
26 nations boycotted the Montreal Olympic Games after New Zealand, whose national
rugby team had recently played in South Africa, was allowed to compete even though the
apartheid regime of South Africa had been banned from the Olympics since 1964. Another
small incident: a Soviet diver fell in love with an American girl and did not return to the
Olympic village. Excited Soviet officials came to me and asked that I get the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation to air an appeal from the diver's mother. We had very good
cooperation with CBC and the appeal was broadcast, but the love-stricken diver returned
to Russia only much later.
I got my white hair from the Moscow Olympic Games of 1980. I was then Vice Chairman
of the Soviet State Television and Radio Committee, and was given responsibility for the
media coverage of the Games. I was made responsible for everything - the construction of
a new Olympic television center, the development and production of color television and
radio equipment (we could not buy it because of the embargo over Afghanistan), and
reaching agreements with foreign companies on the world coverage of the Games.
We could not use foreign producers and cameramen, but we tried to train our people and,
to that end, we organized many meetings and seminars for our staff, inviting foreign
television journalists and producers. It was not easy to persuade the Soviet authorities to
issue the necessary visas without delays.
Once I was told that an Israeli journalist, Alex Gilady was categorically denied a visa. I
called the foreign office and they told me that it was not them but the KGB that was
responsible. I called the KGB General Ivan Pavlovich Abramov, who was responsible for
journalist visas. He told me that there was no question of giving a visa to Gilady because
he was from Mossad, the Israeli secret service. I replied that if Gilady was indeed from
Mossad, he should be their target and they, the KGB, should invite him to dinner and pour
vodka into him. But if he was not, then it was our business. If Gilady was denied a visa, I
said I would have to resign, and I told the KGB general my Mexican visa story. Gilady got
his visa. Today, he is a member of the International Olympic Committee.
The biggest headache was the boycott of the Moscow Olympics because of the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan. It was a disaster both for the sportsmen and for world television.
We had prepared, for example, excellent technical facilities for the National Broadcasting
Company. It had paid us $87 million but never got to use them.
60 teams boycotted the Moscow Games. Of the Western countries, only Britain, France,
Italy and Sweden participated. When some American athletes challenged their president's
decision, Jimmy Carter threatened to cancel the passports of any who went to the Games.