It has been recently announced by the International Olympic Committee that China has decided that various Web sites on the Internet will be blocked and thus unable to be accessed by journalists during the Olympic games.
This decision was made, of course, after China had promised unlimited access to the Internet, and would provide the "media with the same freedom to report on the Games as they enjoyed at previous Olympics" (Nick Mulvenney, Washington Post. Link below.)
But journalists this week have not been able to have access to "sites deemed sensitive to [China's] communist leadership."
The Chinese government is arguing that the sites blocked are not necessary to journalists or their stories. They believe that the censorship will in no way hinge reporting and covering the Games.
The Amnesty International's Web site is perhaps the most talked about blocked site in China. After it released a report on Monday discussing how China has failed "to honor its Olympic human rights pledges," the site was blocked and can still not be accessed.
China has obviously broken a promise to the IOC and the world. But since it is the host country, is it allowed to censor visitors -- a large part of them journalists simply trying to do their jobs -- for the duration of the Olympic games, unless they concur with the communist government?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/30/AR2008073000991.html
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