Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Who is most wrong on Olympic censorship?

Well, wasn't that stupid. Here we were, all worried about how China would react to being exposed to the crush of unfettered international media reporting that accompanies any Olympic games. But we needn't have been worried. The International Olympic Committee had already agreed in secret to allow censorship, the Reuters international news service reported Wednesday. Yes, the IOC made a secret deal with the Chinese government to prevent visiting journalists from accessing controversial Web sites that Beijing doesn't like, violating an earlier commitment to allow unrestricted access to the Internet. "I regret that it now appears [Beijing Olympic organizers] has announced that there will be limitations on website access during Games time," IOC press chief Kevan Gosper said. "I also now understand that some IOC officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered Games related. Reuters said blocked Web sites its reporters had found included Amnesty International and Falun Gong, a spiritual group banned in China. So, what is the worst evil here? The Chinese, with their authoritarian government trying to censor the international media while saying they're not? Or the IOC, supposedly representing what is right in the world but actually making backroom deals to undercut the principle of free speech?

1 comment:

saxsaxsax said...

if the chinese did not attempt to censor and control the media, i would take its temperature and put it to bed.