China to Sensor Internet during Olympics
Web sites will be censored at Beijing Olympic media centers, a spokesman for the organizing committee said Wednesday, contradicting a pledge to allow foreign reporters unlimited access to the Internet. Web sites of organizations critical of China, including Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, are unavailable at the main press facility in Beijing.
Sun Weide, the chief spokesman for the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, said journalists would not be allowed to access Web sites connected to banned organizations like the Falungong religious movement. He declined to comment on the unavailability of other Web sites.
"We will guarantee sufficient Internet access for accredited media so your coverage of the Olympic Games won't be affected," Sun said by telephone Wednesday. China is not backtracking on its promise to give reporters the same freedoms as at previous Olympics, said Sun Weijia, director for media operations.
"Full Internet access is still guaranteed, that hasn't changed," he said..
The International Olympic Committee was unavailable for immediate comment. On July 8, the organizing committee repeated a pledge to offer unrestricted Internet access to journalists covering the Games. "We recognize that full Internet access is very important in the reporting of the Games," Weide said at the time. "Full Internet access will be offered to all foreign journalists in all the major Olympic venues. Your coverage won't be affected."
Journalist groups complained last week about treatment from security officials while trying to interview people waiting in line for Olympic tickets. A Danish reporter had his camera knocked to the ground and broken while trying to take pictures of the line on Friday, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China said. Falungong, a Buddhist sect that combines exercise routines with New Age spiritual beliefs, has been banned by the government since July 1999, with members accused of plotting to destabilize the country's political system.
Amnesty International, in a report this week, said China had failed to live up to its bid vow in 2001 to "give the media complete freedom to report." It noted that regulations to allow greater freedom of reporting for international media have not been fully implemented and don't extend to Chinese journalists, who are prevented from publishing stories on issues deemed sensitive by the government.
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