Soviets interrupt broadcast from Olympic centre

Press, 15 July 1980, Page 8

Soviets interrupt broadcast from Olympic centre

NZPA-Reuter M oscow The Soviet authorities have refused to relay a West German television report from the Olympic broadcasting centre in Moscow after accusing the correspondent responsible of interviewing dissidents, West I German television sources have said. The correspondent, Klaus Bednarz. of the A.R.D. television network, was told his report on the Olympics and Soviet propaganda had been blocked because it concerned politics and not sport, they said. The move came after a dispute with the West Ger-j man correspondent over So-j viet objections that a seriesj of reports he submitted for broadcasting contained an interview with a Soviet dis-| sident. Bednarz told officials there had been no such interview and that the only mention of dissident — Yelena Boner, wife of the human-rights campaigner, Andrei Sakharov — was in a message intended only as information for his editors. Initially the Soviet television official who raised the objections had apolo-j gised?

But half-an-hour later he telephoned Bednarz to say that one of the correspondent’s four reports could not be broadcast after all, the sources said. Other Western sources said a number of television correspondents, mainly

Iv advised by the authorities ■to confine ’their reporting during the games to sporting issues. The censored West Ger.man repdrt had contrasted i recent official statements asserting that sport and politics should not be mixed 'with another assertion, from a Communist Party handbook. that holding the Olym- ; pics in Moscow was a ■triumph for Soviet foreign policy, the sources said. The sources said Bednarz felt the dispute was now a matter for Eurovision, an umbrella organisation link- , ing numerous Western television networks, which had ■hired the Soviet studio from which he made the broadcast. The Soviet Union said yesterday that the American and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation intelligence ser-! vices had trained dozens of young agents at “anti-Olym-pic schools” in Britain and West Germany for subver sion during the Moscow Games. The schools were part of a wide-ranging anti-Olympic. programme which included setting up special firms producing false-bottomed suitcases for smuggling anti-So-viet literature into the country, the Communist Party newspaper, “Soviet skaya Rossiya.” said. The article, summarised I by the official Tass news' agency, alleged that Ameri-i can Central Intelligence! Agency agents in the West-l ern information media had! been assigned the task of'

s, spreading ‘‘disinformation, and slander” about the Mos-'. ’i cow Games, which will open i i this week-end. -I In an effort to preventh I truthful information getting I i - out' about the Olympics, ir'i -(declared, the C.i.A. had pres- I insured many Western Tcle-j ij vision organisations into>| -(abandoning plans for direct -.transmissions from Moscow. [, ij The British Defence Minis-;, C try dismissed the allegations! (as rubbish. “Sovietskaya Rossiya”! tfsaid one of the schools ivasj' i 1 at a military base at Old-;' . iham. Lancashire, and the J -iother at a village it named'' lias West-on-Trent in Derby-; dshire. ] -■ The "Gazetteer of Great;, I Britian” identifies a Derby-) Ijshire village of Weston', II upon Trent, but no West-on-; '[Trent. ■■ “We have no units in the.’ f Oldham area,” a Ministry: ■ spokesman said. “I under-i, I stand that there is a Ukra-i ( ■ nian exile association youth I, T camp for eight-to-18-year-j ’ (olds at Weston upon Trent. ! f| “As far as we are con-', 1 cerned this allegation is rub-:-I bish.” !< The Soviet allegations ap-il ■ peared partly aimed at ex-(i ■ plaining to ordinary Rus-! ■ sians the imposing security (! ’ measures in .the city which it i have included the drafting oft t itens of thousands of extra'l II police into Moscow. |c ;[ “Sovietskaya Rossiya” alsoii •<gave its readers one final■ C : warning to be careful of! I (foreigners who might poison's J their minds with Western;( ■ideas. ' t

, The newspaper said that! 'some of what the Russians' call “ideological saboteurs”' ■ might look young and innojeent but that they were be[ing specially trained at holding “heated political debates." Some Muscovites, who say! ; they have even been warned■ .(privately that foreign visi-l ■ tors may offer them poisoned! (chewing gum. laugh about! : their Government’s worries. ! I They say Russians who! [will have contact with for-1 ieign visitors have been-given I 'warnings about venereal dis-; (ease, and have been given in-' sections against such exotic■ (diseases as yellow fever,; 'plague and even foot-and-i ; mouth disease. ! “Hoof-and-mouth disease —[ (who do they think we’ll be' (dealing with, animals'?” askedi one. Some 60 of the 150 eligible! nations and territories will i Joe absent -when the Games open in the Lenin Stadium! this week-end. The Russians said 67 coun-i tries had registered nearly! 2400 athletes and officials in' the Olympic village by early! yesterday while more came' later in the day. Several countries will follow the example of Britain, whose athletes will not march in the opening parade. Instead Britain will send only a single team official into the stadium, bearing the Olympic flag rather than the Union Jack, behind a sign saying 8.0. A. for British Olympic Association, rather than Great Britain. I ■