The Olympics press official who has had to explain to the world why China reneged on its promise to open the Internet for the games is feeling like a "fall guy" for the International Olympic Committee. Higher ups, he says, probably knew of Beijing's plans before journos arrived in country.
Ethan Zuckerman points to the staggeringly high prices that are being charged to the press for Internet hookup (we're talking $1130 for a 512 pipe) and does a round-up of all the nose-thumbing stuff going around, i.e. ways to circumvent China's restrictions during the summer games.
And Reporters without Borders has set up a one-stop shop for all your news on Beijing's Internet restrictions, hotel wiretapping, journalist imprisoning, and more.
The China Debate was put together by Amnesty International to host the discussion about China and human rights during the Olympic games. I can't recall another site that takes the approach that it does -- limiting debate to a few core issues and then building out discussion boards around them. It's a little clunky in this case, but I kinda like it. I suspect actually limiting what people are invited to talk about might paradoxically foster discussion.
I've been thinking a lot lately about how you usefully architect public participation, so that you don't get people all worked up into a froth of excitement until they realize they've just been given busy work or a place to vent, which then ultimately depresses participation. Along those lines, I've been looking into the Obama listening sessions, Get FISA Right, Peer-to-Patent, etc. Anyway, The China Debate is worth checking out -- especially given the news that China has already broken one pre-Olympic promise. (Thx Matt BH)
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.
