China and the IOC are now saying that journalists covering the Olympics won't exactly have access to a long-promised unfettered Internet:

Journalists covering the Beijing Olympic Games will not have completely uncensored access to the internet, Chinese and Olympic officials say.

Sites related to spiritual group Falun Gong would be blocked, officials said. Journalists also found they could not see some news or human rights websites.

China enforces tough internet controls, but said when it bid for the Games that journalists would be free to report.

A senior IOC official apologised for misleading journalists on the issue.

"I'm not backing off what I said," International Olympic Committee press commission chairman Kevan Gosper told the South China Morning Post.

"There will be full, open and free internet access during Games time to allow journalists to report on the Olympics," he added.

"But I have also been advised that some of the IOC officials had negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked."

An "open Internet" with "some sensitive sites...blocked" is somewhat like "a little bit pregnant."

Is it just me, or was an open Internet one of the very requirements that China agreed to abide by when it was awarded the games, a plum prize from the world community? Yep, pretty sure I'm right about that. And now when push comes to shove, they say, "when we said 'open,' we meant everything except for anything having to do with our political enemies or a free press or..."

Somewhere, Jingjing is smiling.

UPDATE: Former Berkman center fellow and University of Hong Kong professor Rebecca McKinnon has some tips for journalists on how to do their jobs well in Beijing.