China

Internet censorship causes Olympic scandal

Article published on the 2008-07-30 Latest update 2008-08-06 14:10 TU

Olympic press centre in China
(Photo: AFP)

Foreign reporters will not have full access to the internet during the Olympics. China's communist authorities had previously promised complete internet access to foreign reporters for the duration of the Games, but this decision has now been reversed.

Beijing Olympic organising committee spokesman Sun Weide confirmed on Wednesday that the foreign press would not have full internet access, as previously promised. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had repeatedly assured international journalists that they would have free and full access to the web during the Games.

Sun announced to day that the authorities would "provide sufficient access to the internet for reporters". But "sufficient access" does not include sites linked to the Falungong spiritual movement, outlawed in China.

Although no other sites were mentioned by name, reporters in Olympic press facilities have not been able to access the site of human rights watchdog Amnesty International, as well as sites referring to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in which the military crushed democracy protests.

In an interview two weeks ago, IOC chairman Jacques Rogge had promised full web freedom to the foreign press at the Games.

"For the first time, foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China," he said. "There will be no censorship on the Internet."

Clothilde Lecoz, from Reporters Without Borders, told RFI that China’s censorship is making a mockery of the IOC.

 

“Today they are ridiculous,” she said. “They were saying that everything would be ready for 8 August ... now we see that all their negotiating is just ending in a case of censorship”