Beijing Games Internet access update
Amnesty International on Friday reported that foreign journalists working in the Beijing Games' main press building now have access to its website, along with previously blocked sites operated by Human Rights Watch, Radio Free Asia and the BBC Chinese language service.
Amnesty International also reports that some of the websites also are accessible in other parts of Beijing, although availability appears to be inconsistent.
Here is what Roseann Rife, deputy director for the Asia-Pacific Program at Amnesty International had to say on Friday:
We welcome the news today that the authorities have lifted blocks on our website in the Olympics media venues and possibly elsewhere in Beijing. However, arbitrary blocking and unblocking of certain sites does not fulfill the duty to comply with international standards of freedom of information and expression.
Internet censorship mushroomed into a big news story earlier this week after Kevan Gosper, head of the IOC’s press commission, alleged that the IOC had struck an unsavory deal with BOCOG.
The IOC countered that no such deal had been struck. Still, the organization met with Beijing Games organizers on Thursday to discuss Internet access. Here is what the IOC had to say in a press release issued a little while ago:
Following discussions the IOC has held with the organisers of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on the difficulties experienced this week in accessing some web sites, the IOC is pleased to see that the issues are quickly being resolved.
The media should be seeing a noticeable difference in accessibility to web sites that they need to report on the Olympic Games.
The IOC has always encouraged the Beijing 2008 organisers to provide media with the fullest access possible to report on the Games, including access to the internet, knowing this is important for them to do their job. This access has always been assured by BOCOG and the Chinese authorities and the IOC is pleased to see these are assurances being upheld.
Stay tuned.
-- Greg Johnson
Photo: Kevan Gosper, an Australian IOC member for 31 years and chairman of the IOC press commission, at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games main press center on Friday. Credit: Goh Chai Hin AFP/Getty Images
