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'European Games allowed free speech'

Monday, June 29 2015 by SNTV
  • Intro:

    The 2015 European Games was a success despite a Guardian journalist allegedly being denied entry into Azerbaijan to report on the event, European Olympic Committee president Patrick Hickey says.

    Script:

    SOUNDBITE: (English) Patrick Hickey, President of European Olympic Committee (EOC):

    "Thank you for the question, yeah I am happy to answer that. Can I first say that while he was refused accreditation, he is only one of 900 international journalists, so that is not a bad result. But to follow on I did say what I said and I did come bak here and I spoke with the highest authorities to prevail on them to allow in Mr Gibson from The Guardian and I am a great believer that an bona fide sport journalist should receive automatic entry in to cover the event. But the one thing I cannot do... we cannot tell a sovereign state what to do and how to operate their affairs. We are only a sports body, we are not a political body. We can lobby in private etc and after that we have to leave it. That was a matter between BECOG and the government of Azerbaijan. So, after that we could do now more."

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