ABC/AFP, July 31, 2008
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/31/2320866.htm
China's muzzling of the international media covering the Beijing Games has angered the Olympic movement and members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are questioning China's right to hold the Games.
Reporters trying to surf the internet at the main press centre for the Games have also found a wide array of sites deemed sensitive by China's rulers to be out-of-bounds.
Sites that are blocked include those for human rights group Amnesty International, the Tibet government-in-exile, press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders and various Chinese dissident organisations.
No high-ranking IOC official has been available to comment publicly today about the breaking of the promise of a free and open Beijing Games.
But privately IOC members are enraged by the blocking of sensitive websites and the use of spyware in media hotels to monitor internet use.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an IOC member has told the ABC that it appears now that China never had any intention of removing its censorship regime and the international media has effectively been muzzled.
The member says if this information had been had been known during the bidding process, China never would have got the Games.
The head of the IOC's press commission Kevan Gosper says he would be surprised if IOC president Jacques Rogge did not know about China's internet blocking.
Mr Rogge has arrived in Beijing but is yet to comment on the growing row over internet access.
Mr Gosper says he was not aware of an agreement between fellow senior IOC executives and Chinese officials, and he feels isolated.
"I am concerned that I was put into that position, but I really am not concerned about myself; I'm concerned that the international media, who we rely on for reporting the Games, has been caught by surprise. That for me is unacceptable," he said.
Meanwhile, China says it is "determined" to implement its regulations over internet access, despite the accusations of censorship.
"For the regulations, we are determined to implement the regulations ... effectively," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters.
Mr Liu also described as "unfair" claims by a US Senator earlier this week that China is planning to spy on guests who stay at foreign-owned hotels during the Olympic Games.
"In China, privacy is respected and guaranteed. In hotels and other places, there are no special measures that are beyond measures used internationally," he said.
ABC/AFP