The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has conceded that China will not lift its internet curbs despite its previous promises. Since the Beijing press centre opened last week reporters have been unable to access scores of online pages, including the websites of Amnesty International, the BBC's Chinese language news, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers.
The restrictions undermine claims by IOC president Jacques Rogge that China had agreed to provide free web access for foreign news media during the games.
Sun Weide, chief spokesman for the Olympics organising committee, acknowledged that censorship would remain in place. "It has been our policy to provide the media with convenient and sufficient access to the Internet," he said.
And how often did we hear that the benefit of awarding the games to China would be a move towards greater liberalism? (Via NY Times)
