The Chinese government has admitted to censoring the media's Internet access at the Beijing Olympics — and the International Olympic Committee decided it's not such a big deal.
When reporters first started noticing they weren't able to access sites "that discuss Tibetan succession, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown of the protests in Tiananmen Square and the sites of Amnesty International, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers known for their freewheeling political discourse," China said the problem had to do with the websites' hosts, not their countrywide filters.
They're done playing that charade, and owning up to the restrictions.
The IOC, which some of the 20,000 journalists there thought might get angry over the matter since China promised unfettered Internet access, has OK'd China's censorship based on the excuse that the blocked sites are not relevant to the Olympics. Which is exactly what China would like you to believe.
Too bad that the promise China made in 2001 when it lobbied to host the Games — that it would improve its human rights record and keep the air clean for athletes — has turned out to be the biggest hoax played on the world this Olympics season. And that's kind of a story worth reporting.
But there's hope yet: Reporters Without Borders has provided a tip sheet for journalists on how to circumvent the filtering. Too bad any reporter already in China won't be able to read it; the organization's website has been blocked.
Editorial Director
The Olympics organization should never have agreed to let Communist and repressive and speech-controlling and press-controlling and human rights violator China host the Olympics. It's one of the biggest blunders in Olympics history. Of course the country should not be censoring or tampering with any internet access, anywhere, anyplace, anytime, on anyone. There's already reports of China spying on people at hotels, of harassing journalists (that's going on right now), or harassing city employees, of harassing business owners and club owners (that's a story recently in The Washington Post) and of myriad other human rights violations. The Olympics should not have been held there, and it's a huge, stinking disgrace.