Good news on Olympic web

GuyClapperton 0 343 Views

For once someone has done the right thing. You might remember my last post was a disappointed rant against China for restricting access to the Internet for journalists covering the Olympics.

I can't speak for the US but in the UK it got as far as our National news bulletins.

Well, the move has been overturned. It's not good enough for my liking yet; the resident people in China still can't get to whichever sites they please even if the journalists there for a few weeks can.

But it's a start, and it's the removal of one of the blocks that country had imposed. It's unlikely to go any further but hey, I've already been proven wrong on this once.

Dani AI

Generated

A concise factual addendum that expands the points raised by and .

The IOC/Beijing exchange in early August 2008 produced a narrow outcome: concessions were negotiated mainly to enable reporting on the Games themselves rather than to deliver a blanket end to filtering. That distinction explains why coverage at the time described an "overturning" of some blocks but not an unconditional reopening of the Chinese internet for journalists. (theguardian.com)

Following international pressure, a number of previously blocked sites (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the BBC Chinese pages and several overseas Chinese-language sites) were reported reachable inside the Main Press Centre and in parts of Beijing, but the change was piecemeal and inconsistent across venues and moments. Monitoring teams noted that some unblockings were temporary and that access varied by location and connection. (wired.com)

As warned, the ultimate gatekeeping power remained with Chinese authorities: many politically sensitive sites (Tibet, Falun Gong, Tiananmen-related material, dissident outlets) stayed blocked. Independent testing around the Games found dozens of news and rights sites filtered, and organisations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that their own pages were intermittently inaccessible from press centres. (cpj.org)

Bottom line: the Olympics produced visible, short-term loosening for some foreign media but not a structural rollback of censorship. Human-rights groups criticised the IOC and organisers for accepting a limited fix instead of permanent guarantees. For anyone checking this episode later, the contemporaneous monitoring reports from OpenNet Initiative, CPJ and Amnesty give the clearest, sourced record of what was and was not accessible. (amnesty.org)

Member Avatar for happygeek
happygeek 2,411 Most Valuable Poster

Not quite 'free Internet access' or 'unrestricted' though, even for the media.

The report that you referenced says, towards the bottom and quoting the IOC press commission spokesman:

"There will be sites blocked that have to do with pornography or where in the opinion of the national government are sites which are subversive or against national interest"

The important bits being 'in the opinion of the national government' and 'which are subversive or against national interest' which, I suspect, means that nothing will have changed much at all - other than there being reports in some parts of the media saying that everything is coming up Chinese roses now...

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GuyClapperton 12 Staff Writer

That's fair comment - many thanks.

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