On August 9 members of the Bulgarian Falun Dafa Association (BFDA) will join worldwide protests against the imprisonment of Chinese journalists and human rights activists and call for an end to the harassment of those placed under surveillance or forced to leave Beijing.

The demonstration, in front of the Chinese embassy in Sofia, is just part of the wider actions of international organisation Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF, Reporters without Borders) staged on August 7 in Rome and Ottawa and on August 8 in London, Madrid, Berlin, Paris, Stockholm and Washington.

A rally in front of the Olympic Museum in the Swiss city of Lausanne will also take place on August 8, timed to coincide exactly with the official opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing.

“The Chinese government has not kept its promise to improve respect for human rights that it undertook in 2001 when Beijing was chosen to host the 2008 Olympics,” RSF said. According to BFDA, the human rights alliance will also voice their disapproval about China’s broken promises to allow more press freedom and address human rights issues.

BFDA has informed Sofia municipality over the protest and invited others to join. They said that besides followers of the Chinese practice for improvement of the character and the health Falun Dafa, which initiated the event, non-governmental organisations, lawyers, sports personalities and Tibet supporters are also invited to attend, people “who are against the violation of human rights in China and the violation of freedom of speech under the pretext of  ‘holding free Olympics’,” BFDA said.

Watch the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at 3.08pm EEST on Bulgarian National Television. The broadcaster will have a 15-hour daily programme on Olympic events. See also Where to Watch the Games, and Lifting the Olympic Curtain.