Organisers to lift Olympics Internet restrictions
CHINA: The International Olympic Committee and the Chinese organisers
BOCOG have agreed to lift all Internet restrictions for media covering
the Beijing Games, the IOC told Reuters on Friday.
“The issue has been solved,” vice-president Gunilla Lindberg said.
“The IOC Coordination Commission and BOCOG met last night and agreed.
Internet use will be just like in any Olympics.”
The issue had caused a major stir days before the start of the Aug.
8-24 Olympics with IOC officials insisting there would be no censorship
and BOCOG saying sensitive sites would remain blocked by the Communist
authorities.
Although Internet access will be free for reporters for the period of
the Games, it is still tightly controlled for the rest of the country.
Sites related to spiritual movement Falun Gong, and other issues that
are frowned on, are regularly blocked.
“In the last few days it’s been obvious that there have been sites
blocked on the Internet,” IOC Press Commission chairman Kevan Gosper
told Reuters.
“I have received unqualified assurances from President of the IOC
Jacques Rogge and the chairman of the Coordination Commission Hein
Verbruggen that we have not shifted our position.”
He said the unblocking of sites was already under way and these
included Deutsche Welle, Amnesty International and the BBC’s China site.
“Already we put a team together in the IOC to work with BOCOG to
begin to open up sites which we believe are absolutely necessary to
comply with non-censored reporting of the Games,” Gosper said.
Gosper said some sites which were deemed by the government as
subversive would continue to be blocked.
“There will be sites blocked that have to do with pornography or
where in the opinion of the national government are sites which are
subversive or against national interest, and that’s normal in most
countries in the world.
In a statement issued late on Thursday, the IOC had said it was
expecting BOCOG to solve the issue and said it had always made clear
that media representatives should have full access to the Internet.
BOCOG is responsible for directly running the Beijing Games under the
auspices of the IOC, which sets general policy.
The organising committee of an Olympics would generally work
hand-in-hand with the IOC.
Beijing, Friday, Reuters |
