Posted on 07/30/2008 9:49:43 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
BEIJING (AFP) - The Beijing Olympics were plunged into another controversy on Wednesday as China announced a backflip on Internet freedoms for the thousands of foreign reporters covering the Games.
China's decision to reverse a pledge on allowing unfettered web access proved an embarrassment for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which had repeatedly said foreign press would not face any Internet curbs in Beijing.
It was also the latest in a long line of issues to have tarnished the run-up to the Olympics, which start on August 8, following controversies over pollution, human rights and terrorism threats.
Beijing Olympic organising committee spokesman Sun Weide triggered the latest public relations flare-up when he confirmed foreign reporters would not have access to some sites deemed sensitive by China's communist rulers.
"During the Olympic Games we will provide sufficient access to the Internet for reporters," Sun said.
However "sufficient access" falls short of the complete Internet freedoms for foreign reporters that China had promised in the run-up to the Games.
Sun specified sites linked to the Falungong spiritual movement, which is outlawed in China, as ones that would remain censored for the foreign press at Olympic venues.
He did not identify any others but reporters trying to surf the Internet at the main press centre for the Games on Wednesday found a wide array of sites deemed sensitive by China's rulers to be out-of-bounds.
These included sites belonging to Tibet's government-in-exile and Amnesty International, as well as those that had information on the 1989 Tiananmen massacre in which the military used deadly force to crush democracy protests.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Surprise!
not.
File photo shows a journalist working on a laptop computer during a Beijing 2008 Olympics press conference. China plunged into another Olympic controversy as it announced that the thousands of foreign reporters covering the Games would have to endure Internet censorship. (AFP/File/Frederic J. Brown)
Performers wait to enter the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, for an Olympic opening ceremony rehearsal in Beijing, China, Wednesday, July 30, 2008. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games open on Aug. 8. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Now see, there is real air pollution in China, not CO2 but harmful elements that the US has taken great pains to eliminate from our air. As for their not allowing internet freedom who the heck is surprised by that move? The journalist? Why would they be surprised that one of their favorite far left governments won’t allow the world to see what is really taking place at the Olympics in real time?
Is that early morning mist I see? Surely that won’t hinder the athletes.
I wonder if China will wait until the night before the games to start censoring email or if it’ll start earlier than that...
Too bad that someone couldn’t hack the television feed from the opening ceremonies and replace all of the nation’s flags with the Tibetan one.
Does anyone here travel to China regularly? Is that pollution, or is it fog?? If it’s pollution, I’m surprised people can live in that trash.
I was in Beijing last year, in June, and that’s not “mist”. It was like that the entire day.
With all the things that the Olymic Games are supposed to be about holding them in the ‘Peoples’ Republic is such a farce.
Shanghai is even worse. Sometimes we couldn’t see the tops of the many highrise buildings.
China is a dictatorship, a police state
Rick -
I said it. Please remember a government can be reprehensible and authoritarian and NOT Communist. China today is no different than many past regimes in its attempt to maintain control of its population and image. It HAS adopted capitalism in an unrestrained form and reflects many of the ills of present-day Russia.
The triads and tongs are back as are their methods of making money. The Party permits to them to exist as long as local officials get their cut.
China has seen numerous dynasties come and go, some as brutal, if not more so, than the Communist “dynasty”; we can only hope that it, too, shall pass. It’s my hope that Olympic troubles like this will precipitate that decline.
A greater fear is a more nationalistic regime, which may be more open to entrepreneurship but also more xenophobic, like Russia.
Definitely pollution! I’m all for athletes wearing masks, whether it embarrasses the Chinese government or not. Some of the national Olympic committees have asked their athletes not to wear masks - they have got to be kidding!
On my first visit to China in 1979, when there were few cars or trucks on the road, pollution was terrible in winter due to the use of high-sulfur coal at power plants. Now it’s a hundred times worse. Add to that the dust and sand blowing in from the Gobi desert and you have a real environmental mess. I wore a mask even back then.
Wikipedia and youtube are banned outright in China. Many search terms on Google lead to the appearance of “the red screen of death.”
When you make a deal with today’s version of Germany 1936, what do you expect?
Seriously, if you recall that poster, let me know.
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