p2pnet news view P2P | Freedom:- Only days before the 2008 Beijing Olympics are scheduled to begin, and following months of strong criticism about continuing censorship, Chinese president Hu Jintao says his country will finally stand by pledges made when it was awarded the games.

Now, “Internet use will be just like in any Olympics,” Reuters has IOC vice-president Gunilla Lindberg promising.

The International Olympics Committee (IOC) recently said it would investigate “apparent censorship” of Net services provided for media covering events.

“IOC press chief Kevan Gosper said earlier this week that some IOC officials cut a deal to let China block sensitive websites to the media, despite repeated promises of a free Internet, but on Friday officials backtracked, saying once again there would be unrestricted access,” according to Reuters, quoting Lindberg as saying.

However, the concession may be a gesture that’s too late, and too little.

Net access will be free for reporters for the period of the games, but, “it is still tightly controlled for the rest of the country,” says Reuters.

“I don’t think that politicizing the Olympic Games will do anything good to addressing any of the issues,” Hu said.

. .Stumble It!

continuing censorship – New reports of China Olympics censorship, July 31, 2008
Reuters -Hu says China stands by Games pledges, web curbs lifted, August 1, 2008

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 9:54 am and is filed under Freedom, P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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