Dick Pound: Rule 50 Complaints 'Misguided'

(ATR) The IOC’s longest serving member responds to complaints from athletes that their freedom of speech is being limited during the Olympic Games.

The IOC Athletes Commission released guidance last month aimed at clarifying Rule 50, which bans any "demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda".

The latest advice allows athletes to speak their minds during interviews and press conferences in mixed zones, the Main Press Center and International Broadcast Center, team meetings and on social media platforms.

But protests and demonstrations are not allowed in the Olympic Village, the field of play or during ceremonies, including on the podium.

IOC doyen Dick Pound, who has been a member since 1978, defends the parameters in an editorial published on the Olympics website on Tuesday.

He says "in a free society, rights may come with certain limitations. Rule 50 restricts the occasions and places for the exercise of such rights. It does not impinge on the rights themselves."

Click here to read Pound's entire statement on the matter.

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