Following yesterday’s staged ‘media tour’ of Lhasa, China has approved a chaperoned tour of foreign diplomats.

Let’s hope they get to see what’s really happening, not just what their tour guides allow.  We need to continue to call on the Chinese to allow full and open access to independent observers and unfettered access to the international media to ensure the safety of Tibetans within Tibet.

Yesterday’s tactics by the Chinese show a flagrant disregard for media freedom and transparency.  We can only wonder what access the foreign media will have during the Olympics.

A ’stage-managed’ media tour by foreign journalists to Tibet has been interupted by Tibetan monks who have used the opportunity to get their story out to the international media. After about 15 minutes of talking to the foreign press, the monks were whisked away by Chinese police. We hold grave concerns for their safety and will be calling on our Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to ensure that the monks are unharmed and are released immediately.

The following is the full text of the media release from the International Tibet Support Network (ITSN). Footage of the interaction between the monks and the media can be seen at CNN and SkyNews.

Dozens of Tibetan monks disrupt Chinese government organized media tour of Tibet

Monks shout: ‘Tibet is not free,’ risking their lives to send message of freedom to the world

A group of Tibetan monks disrupted a tightly controlled Chinese government media tour in Lhasa today — the only foreign media that has been allowed into Tibet since widespread protests of Chinese rule gripped the nation. As over 20 journalists and their government handlers toured the Jokhang temple in Lhasa, several dozen monks — at great risk to their personal safety — began shouting: “Tibet is not free!” and asserting that the Dalai Lama was not to blame for the recent protests. The monks were immediately taken away by police officers.

“In Tibet, where the free expression of political views is met with incarceration and torture, these monks risked everything to show the world that Tibet is not free,” said Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet, “While the Chinese government tries to paint a picture of criminal Tibetan riots and many in the press focus on ethnic tensions, the fundamental issue is freedom. The Tibetan people are not and never will be content under Chinese rule. “

The Chinese government has a long history of organizing state guided tours of Tibet in order to present their biased view of life under occupation. Though this humiliating tactic is well known to Tibetans, this is the first time they have disrupted such a tour on this scale.

“The actions of monks, nuns, and ordinary Tibetans in almost every region of Tibet point to a nationwide uprising,” said Tethong, “Tibetans have suffered under Chinese rule for half a century and in this year of the Olympics – with all eyes on China – Tibetans are risking everything to achieve a free Tibet. This is the uprising of a people against their oppressor and the only possible outcome is freedom.”

This action comes on the heels of Beijing’s announcement that over 660 Tibetans have ’surrendered’ in the wake of last week’s protests. Tibetans and supporters maintain that Tibetans – knowing the consequences of detainment in one the world’s most notorious prison systems – would never give themselves up to Chinese authorities and the arrests are the result of harassment, door-to -door searches, intimidation, and coercion.