14 DAY TRIAL // Although the International Olympic Committee, along with human rights organizations, has pleaded for free access to all Internet resources during the Beijing Olympics, some restrictions that were instituted before the games are still preventing journalists, and people in general, from accessing certain webpages.
Reports indicate that access to websites that have subjects related to matters that could harm China's integrity is blocked. Therefore, foreign journalists cannot read anything about the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989, the insurrection in Tibet, Taiwan or about Dalai Lama. However, the decision to maintain some of the restrictions has among people the opposite effect to what authorities were hoping for. Naturally, this happens because everyone knows about the frictions that we have just mentioned. The suppression of media and blog coverage on them rather draws attention than make it all go away.
Journalists and non-Chinese participants to the Olympic Games started making various tests to see just how many websites were actually affected by the officials' decision. Some reported that, in general, pages that host blogs were apparently working, but access to specific blogs was still blocked.
The Chinese authorities were, as usual, quick to answer back. The official line was that certain websites were injurious to children and should be blocked, no matter the special circumstances. Moreover, Wang Wei, the vice-president of organizing committee BOCOG, claimed that every country had the right to stop harmful content from being spread among the most suggestible users. "That's an assessment made by the authorities of which sites are good and which are not good for our youth. It's like what any other country does." he said.
Human rights organizations have peacefully fought, through manifestations and acid articles, against the censorship that could cripple the media brought together at the Olympics. Chinese authorities have promised that they would enable full access to the journalists in Beijing, but their statement proved to be inconsistent with their further actions. Also, the cyber-dissidents who have been imprisoned right before the event remain in jail, despite the efforts and complaints of several international organizations.