China wins Olympic gold medal for Internet censorship during the XXIX Olympiad

Davey Winder
Thursday, 31 July 2008 16:34

Business IT - Networking

The International Olympic Committee has repeatedly assured the world's media that foreign journalists covering the Olympic Games in Beijing would be able to do so without any restrictions on Internet access. China, when bidding for the Games, stated journalists would be able to freely report. Now it appears that some 'sensitive' websites will be blocked...

File under: absolutely no surprise there then. As the BBC reports that foreign journalists covering the Beijing Olympic Games will not, after all, have the uncensored and free access to the Internet that China had promised as part of the bidding process.

The Chinese position seems to have changed, as we rapidly approach the opening of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, from one of "there will be full, open and free Internet access" to the rather more restrictive "we will provide reporters with sufficient and convenient internet access."

Sufficient and convenient is not, I suspect, how the world's media will see it. Indeed, the BBC reports that some news sites, human rights sites such as Amnesty International and those specifically relating to the Falun Gong spiritual group have already been noted as inaccessible.

It seems that the International Olympic Committee were not only aware of this, but a part of it as IOC press commission chairman Kevin Gosper is quoted as confirming that "some of the IOC officials had negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao is struggling to see what all the fuss is about. The 21,000 or so accredited foreign media reporters that are currently descending upon Beijing to cover the Olympics will have "access to normal information for journalists" he told the Bangkok Post.

In the same article Jianchao is quoted as stating that "People can access normal information" and insisting that "China has its management standards on the management of the internet."

What else does the Chinese Government, and the Beijing Olympic organising committee, have to say about media censorship during the Games? Read page 2 to find out...

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