Posted on 07/29/2008 9:14:30 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BEIJING (AFP) - Foreign reporters will not have complete access to the Internet during the Beijing Olympics, Games organisers said Wednesday, reversing a pledge to bring down the Chinese firewall of censorship.
Sites linked to the banned Falungong spiritual movement and other unspecified ones would remain blocked for the thousands of foreign reporters covering the Games, organising committee spokesman Sun Weide told AFP.
"During the Olympic Games we will provide sufficient access to the Internet for reporters," said Sun Weide, spokesman for the organising committee.
However "sufficient" access falls short of the complete Internet freedoms for foreign reporters that China's communist authorities had promised in the run-up to the Games, which begin on August 8.
The head of the International Olympic Committee's press commission, Kevan Gosper, told AFP that he would take the matter up with Chinese authorities.
--snip--
Australian Olympic team chief John Coates, who is also an IOC member, expressed frustration with the decision to continue to censor the Internet, pointing out that China had gone back on one of its "key" Olympic promises.
"It certainly is disappointing... I think it's a matter that the IOC will take seriously," Coates told reporters at the main press centre for the Games here where sensitive Internet sites remained blocked.
Coates said that IOC president Jacques Rogge and Gosper would have "very serious discussions with the Chinese authorities" about the issue.
However he said he was not sure whether the IOC had the power or influence to convince the authorities to give foreign reporters free access to the Internet.
"What (IOC leaders) can do about it, I don't know," he said.
In an exclusive interview with AFP two weeks ago, Rogge insisted that there would be no censorship of the Internet.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I misunderstood your point. Thanks for the clarification.
I will still disagree. The leader of the free world should lead. He should stand like that young man in front of the tank in Tiananmen and proclaim, America does not dip its flag. It does not run. It does not hide. Our presidents stands for freedom and is strong to look the enemies of liberty right in the eye.
Our president should not cower and hide
It is no political, it is liberty.
You might have thought it your point. I see your view as cowardice. It is so perplexing to me how someone can see a confrontation, choose to stay home and watch it on TV and call that standing proud. I suppose we will not agree. I could never come to accept your view on this.
Only to those that politicize them from afar. Not to those that participate in them. One day the rest of you will accept the ideal. Until then the world has no hope of peace, not if we can not have it for two weeks of the Games.
Call it an unrealistic ideal if you want but your position is to make it a fait accompli.
I'll tell them right to their face that they're a bunch of whores for glorifying such a crap hole country with their presence especially in light of their Iraqi brethren being banned from there. If that "infuriates" you, tough.
So you're telling me the Chinese government is not making this thing political? They're just down with the "spirit of competition and friendliness"? You're on crack cocaine.
I have to agree with you. It would be hypocritical and disingenuous for America to boycott the China Olympics for political reasons while at the same time sucking from the teat of Chicom labor that provides low, low price orgasms at WalMart and countless other consumer supply depots in the US.
Just what I read. So you think this article is inaccurate and that despite Chinese official announcements that Internet access will be censored, not just for Chinese but also for visitors and journalists to the Olympics, that instead the Internet will not be censored? Interesting.
I suppose if one denies the existence of reality, despite evidence, then it could appear to that person that someone who was not in denial would not know what they are talking about. I will assume this is the case with you.
I did not say that. I said we should not shirk from the fight. You can take that as an acknowledgment if you want that the Chinese do hope to make it political. My view is that we should not stay home in the face of that challege.
I said that is aboslutely uninformed. And it is.
On the article about censorship of the internet, you need to read carefully the article. The article implies there will be new censorship, that journalist over there will not be able to access some parts of the internet. Those are not new restrictions. They have always been there. Specifically, the sites of Fulan Gong, a cult, are blocked.
You can disagree about the Fulan Gong, but I have seen them in action in China. They are indeed a cult and should not be allowed to prey on people as they have. You are entitled to your view about them.
Finally, there is no way to block the Western media from accessing those sites. You can access any website in the world from China. Perhaps not through the Chinese web servers but certainly through many other routes.
The article itself is the king of propaganda you say you are opposed to. The article is disingenuous. Reporters are trying to telling you of their objection to having something blocked that they can access in an instant. If they were being straight forward with you, they would be saying that during the Games they want the Chinese to be able to access websites such as those of the Fulan Gong.
I hope you perceive the nuance here. Propoganda is nuance, the most successful kind anyhow. If you are not in tune with that nuance, you allow yourself to be deceived by the your emotions that are played upon and preyed upon.
I hope that explains it and my apology if I was too harsh in my earlier post to you. I get cranky sometimes, let my emotions take over.
I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle. More than just Fulon Gong sites are blocked, and while computer experts probably could access these blocked sites “in an instant” as you say, stupid journalists probably couldn't do so even if their lives depended on it.
No kidding. The Olympics were invented for politics.
Yes, we've seen what happens to protesters in Tiananmen Square. Anyone who opposes the oppressive Chinese communist authoritarians does in fact lose.
I understand your notions. On my first trip to China, I was reading Newsweek i picked up for the flight. When I landed in China, I thought, oh my, I better not take this magazine into China. I left it in the seat back.
At the newstand in the airport, there in the gift shop, right at the front of the store, was the very same issue in the rack that I had left on the plane.
You really need to get on a plane and see China.
No, if you have a satellite dish you can see news reports from free nations, unless you consider the US, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, etc. “socialist nations.” Moreover, I’m sitting here in Beijing right now talking to you over Free Republic. The censored sites are mainly those that advocate separatism or that shine a light on Chinese repression. But if one really wants to read about these topics, it’s not so hard (here in Beijing) to find web sites with that sort of information.
And still FR comes through loud and clear.
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