Chinese unblock some Web sites, but other pages remain off limits

BEIJING (AP) — Olympic organizers unblocked some Internet sites at the main press center and media venues Friday while others remained off limits for journalists covering the Beijing games.

The move falls short of the “free and unfettered access” the organizers and Chinese officials had promised for months. However, it was an improvement from earlier in the week when sites for the likes of Amnesty International or Tiananmen Square could not be opened.

Senior International Olympic Committee officials met late into the night Thursday with their Chinese counterparts and said they reached an agreement to unblock sites, although the IOC statement said the details were still being formulated.

“We trust them to keep their promise,” the International Olympic Committee said.

Kevan Gosper, the press commission head of the IOC, said the IOC and Chinese officials were working toward “unblocking sites that we believe were unreasonably blocked.”

Gosper acknowledged full Web access was not possible due to China’s authoritarian government and the tight social controls exerted by the Communist Party.

“We have always had an understanding, and we haven’t necessarily talked about it, that any sovereign government will block pornographic sites and what they might consider subversive, or sites which are contrary to the national interest,” Gosper said.

“I would suggest also that we are not working in a democratic society, we’re working in a communist society. This is China, and they are proud to be a communist society. So it will be different.

“In terms of all other matters,” Gosper said journalists and broadcasters would have the same access as during previous Olympics.

“I believe we are now on the way to getting there.”