The Australian Open has reversed its ban on \u2018Where is Peng Shuai?\u2019 T-shirts following widespread backlash to the tournament\u2019s claim they constituted \u201ccommercial or political\u201d material, but banners will still be prohibited.<\/p>\n
Late last week spectators at Melbourne Park were asked to remove their shirts referencing the Chinese player, whose wellbeing has been the subject of international concern since she accused a senior Chinese official of sexual assault in early November.<\/p>\n
Tournament security confiscated a banner and asked fans to take off their shirts before Victoria Police were called over and an officer explained \u201cI\u2019m not saying you can\u2019t have those views, but Tennis Australia sets the rules here\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the two days since the situation was made public by Brisbane activist Drew Pavlou, high-profile figures have pushed back on Tennis Australia\u2019s insistence that Peng\u2019s safety is its \u201cprimary concern\u201d despite its decision to classify the banner and T-shirts as \u201ccommercial or political\u201d material.<\/p>\n
Tennis great Martina Navratilova on Monday condemned the stance as \u201cpathetic\u201d and accused Tennis Australia of \u201ccapitulating\u201d to China.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s defence minister Peter Dutton joined the chorus on Tuesday, saying Peng\u2019s safety \u201cis not a political issue\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019s a human rights issue,\u201d Dutton told Sky News. \u201cAnd it\u2019s frankly about the treatment of a young woman who is claiming that she has been sexually assaulted.\u201d<\/p>\n
But TA chief executive and tournament director, Craig Tiley, on Tuesday announced the ban for shirts would be reversed as long as those wearing them were well behaved. Banners would still be barred due to safety concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, as long as they are not coming as a mob to be disruptive but are peaceful,\u201d he told AFP. \u201cIt\u2019s all been a bit lost in translation from some people who are not here and don\u2019t really know the full view.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation in the last couple of days is that some people came with a banner on two large poles and we can\u2019t allow that. If you are coming to watch the tennis that\u2019s fine, but we can\u2019t allow anyone to cause a disruption at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
A source from TA said decisions around what will or will not be allowed inside Melbourne Park would be made on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n
A flood of \u2018Where is Peng Shuai?\u2019 T-shirts is likely to be seen on Saturday before the women\u2019s final with fundraisers pledging to hand them out for free at Melbourne Park. A GoFundMe titled \u201chand out Peng Shuai shirts\u201d has raised more than $15,000 since it was created in defiance of the ban three days ago.<\/p>\n
Peng has appeared only rarely on Chinese social media since early November when her post on Weibo, in which she accused the former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault, was quickly deleted from China\u2019s heavily censored internet.<\/p>\n
In late December, Peng retracted her allegations in an interview with Singapore media outlet Lianhe Zaobao, a Chinese-language publication under the state-controlled Singapore Press Holdings Limited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Australian Open has reversed its ban on \u2018Where is Peng Shuai?\u2019 T-shirts following widespread backlash to the tournament\u2019s claim they constituted \u201ccommercial or political\u201d material, but banners will still be prohibited. Late last week spectators at Melbourne Park were asked to remove their shirts referencing the Chinese player, whose wellbeing has been the subject […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[2974,337,756,3340],"class_list":{"0":"post-240639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-australian-open","9":"tag-ban","10":"tag-peng-shuai","11":"tag-t-shirts"},"yoast_head":"\n