China to Limit Web Access During Olympic Games Not Surprising

Since the Olympic Village press center opened Friday, reporters have been unable to access scores of Web pages — among them those that discuss Tibetan issues, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown on the protests in Tiananmen Square and the Web sites of Amnesty International, the BBC’s Chinese-language news, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers known for their freewheeling political discourse.

The restrictions, which closely resemble the blocks that China places on the Internet for its citizens, undermine sweeping claims by Jacques Rogge, the International Olympic Committee president, that China had agreed to provide full Web access for foreign news media during the Games. Mr. Rogge has long argued that one of the main benefits of awarding the Games to Beijing was that the event would make China more open.

In its negotiations with the Chinese over Internet controls, the Olympic committee official said, the panel insisted only that China provide unregulated access to sites containing information useful to sports reporters covering athletic competitions, not to a broader array of sites that the Chinese and the Olympic committee negotiators determined had little relevance to sports.

Mr. Sun said foreigners using the Internet in China would be subject to the same laws under which censors blocked access to a wide range of Web sites thought to be detrimental to stability. China has long maintained that its laws governing Internet access do not amount to censorship and are similar to restrictions on pornography or gambling sites in many countries.

Deutsche Welle, the US broadcaster Radio Free Asia and the Chinese version of the BBC, as well as Amnesty International

"I was at the BIMC this morning and I was unable to access Amnesty [International]'s site and a couple of others, including a Falun Gong site and Human Rights Watch," said Jonathan Watts, president of the Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) and a correspondent for U.K. newspaper The Guardian.

"These Internet controls are contrary to the host's promises of a free reporting environment, and they also contradict IOC assurances that reporters who come to Beijing will be able to do their job just as they were able to do so at previous Olympics. How can this be the case when they are unable to access many sites that are critical of the authorities," Watts said in an interview.

Another reporter, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that those three sites were blocked, along with the Chinese-language sites for the Voice of America and the British Broadcasting Corp., and Hong Kong-based newspaper Apple Daily.