Archive for July 30th, 2008

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

The IOC’s Bad Internet Deal

International Olympic Committee officials today revealed that they cut a secret deal with Beijing’s Olympic organizers to block sites the Communist Party considers “sensitive,” despite promising open Internet access to journalists covering the Olympic Games.

“There will be limitations on website access during Games time,” IOC press chief Kevan Gosper said to Reuters, referring to Beijing’s Olympic organizers. “IOC officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered Games related,” he said.

Sites on China’s blacklist include Amnesty International and others which promote spiritual group Falun Gong. While such topics are not directly sports-related, they put severe limits on visiting journalists’ efforts to accurately report about the Games’ host country.

The mainstream press, just starting to arrive en masse to Beijing, should continue to expose China’s true colors, regardless of how many gold medals they garner.

There’s something rotten in the state of China, and the IOC’s choice to tacitly support the communist regime’s authoritarian controls is a disgrace to the unifying goals of the Olympic Movement. Shame on them.

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