Jittery Chinese Government Unblocks Some Websites
After earlier pledging to ensure that the 20,000+ journalists attending the games would have open access to the Internet, the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee -- known by the catchy acronym BOCOG -- changed its mind earlier this week and began blocking certain Websites it deemed politically sensitive.
But after discussions with the International Olympic Committee, BOCOG has restored access to at least some of the Websites it had blocked earlier this week. "The media should be seeing a noticeable difference in accessibility to web sites that they need to report on the Olympic Games," the IOC said Friday.
According to news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), journalists at the media center can now access the Websites for Amnesty International, US broadcaster Radio Free Asia, Human Rights Watch, and even some Websites that advocate Taiwan independence.
However, Websites that advocate freedom in Tibet and China's westernmost province of Xinjiang were still blocked, as were Websites related to the banned spiritual group Falun Gong, DPA reported.
The flip-flop underscores the Chinese government's nervousness in the run-up to the Olympics, and its fear of not being able to control every message that flows across the Chinese Internet during the games, which run from Aug. 8 to Aug. 24.
Even Chinese companies are getting into the act. Lenovo, an Olympics sponsor, says it reserves the right to censor the comments of the eight British Olympic athletes who will write content for blogs hosted on its website, according to a report earlier this week in The Guardian (UK).
While the Chinese government may be resigned to the inevitability of online political commentary during the Olympics, it definitely won't tolerate any form of political demonstration by the athletes. So what happens when some gold medal winner unfurls a Tibetan flag on the awards podium?
