IOC: Media Not Told of (China) Censorship Plan (Amnesty International Condemns Restrictions)

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Media not told of censorship plan: IOC
By Paul Radford
52 minutes ago
BEIJING (Reuters) - The international media should have been told they would not have completely free access to the internet before they arrived to report the Beijing Olympics, IOC press chief Kevan Gosper told Reuters on Thursday. As the row over censorship continued to rumble, Gosper said that both he and the international media had been taken by surprise that some sensitive websites had been blocked despite many assurances from Beijing organizers that they would be able to work normally during the Games, which start on August 8. Gosper said: "It's clear that I have been providing, on behalf of the IOC, incomplete information."

Gosper said he had never been told that some IOC officials had held discussions with local organizers BOCOG that some websites not directly connected to the Games could be blocked. "Had I and the international media been informed earlier of this understanding that certain websites would be inaccessible, we would not now find ourselves in the position where they, as well as myself, have been taken by surprise," he said.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International condemned internet restrictions during the Games as "compromising fundamental human rights and betraying the Olympic values." "This blatant media censorship adds one more broken promise that undermines the claim that the Games would help improve human rights in China," Amnesty East Asia researcher Mark Allison said in a statement.

COUNTLESS MEETINGS

Gosper told Reuters he was surprised that he had not heard the IOC had discussed the matter privately with BOCOG as, in his position as chairman of the IOC's press commission and vice-chairman of the Beijing co-ordination commission, he had been involved in countless meetings about press operations for the Games.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080731/wl_nm/olympics_censorship_dc

[sasquatch]

1. And nobody saw it coming

:sarcasm:

[Hissyspit]

2. They could have just GOOGLE'd it.

More :sarcasm:

[Matilda]

3. Did they really, seriously, expect anything different?

You or I or anybody with a functioning brain could have told the IOC
years ago that Games held in China would never be free and open.

We in Australia all know that Kevan Gosper is an idiot anyway. This was
the man who, when Australia hosted the Games in 2000, gave the job of
first torch runner in Greece to his own daughter, and wondered why all
Australia hissed and booed.