PR Week Echo Columns

The relay of sportspeople, celebrities and businessmen carrying the Olympic flame through London was turned into a "turbulent day" by pro-Tibet protesters (Times, 7 April) as the runners were guarded by "riot police and a phalanx of Chinese goons" (Daily Mail, 7 April). Government participation was low-key, with Gordon Brown receiving the torch behind locked gates in Downing Street and Olympics minister Tessa Jowell insisting that London 2012 would not be "intimidated by the threat of protest" (Times 7, April). The police came in for criticism: "the heavy-handedness of the policing would have looked more at home on the streets of Beijing than in Britain" (Mirror, 7 April) but the Chinese 'flame attendants' turned the event into "a combination of sinister and slapstick which did Britain no favours in the eyes of the world" (Evening Standard, 7 April).
There were few supporters for the Chinese embassy spokesman who said he saw "many people welcoming the arrival of the flame" (Evening Standard, 7 April) and tried to endorse the day of "harmony and peace". Steven Redgrave defended his participation, saying that it was "cheap to use athletes as scapegoats for China's human rights abuses" (Mirror, 7 April). Whether the torch will have such a public outing prior to London 2012 is now very doubtful.