7/31/2008

No free speech during Beijing Olympics


"Shocking" news out of Beijing yesterday:

From BBC News:

Journalists covering the Beijing Olympic Games will not have completely uncensored access to the internet, Chinese and Olympic officials say.

Sites related to spiritual group Falun Gong would be blocked, officials said. Journalists also found they could not see some news or human rights websites...

...On Tuesday, they were unable to access the website of Amnesty International as it released a report criticising China's human rights record.

Some international news pages and sites that dealt with issues such as Tibet were also inaccessible, journalists said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao confirmed that websites relating to the Falun Gong spiritual movement were blocked.

"As to sites related to Falun Gong, I think you know that Falun Gong is a cult that has been banned according to law, and we will adhere to our position," he told a news conference on Tuesday.


A group of journalism students from my alma mater is currently in Beijing covering the Olympics, and they have a blog, updating readers on what they see. I wonder if they too are having problems viewing certain websites.

I wonder if this website is banned in China...

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