IOC "surprised" by Games web censorship

By Paul Radford

BEIJING (Reuters) - The media should have been told they would not have total Internet freedom before arriving for the Beijing Olympics, a senior IOC official said on Thursday, as rights groups piled criticism on both the IOC and host China.

As the row over censorship continued, International Olympic Committee (IOC) press chief Kevan Gosper told Reuters that both he and the international media had been taken by surprise that some politically sensitive websites had been blocked.

"It's learning of it at almost the last minute that I think is destabilizing the international media and certainly embarrassing for me, as up till 48 hours ago I was insisting it would be free and uncensored Internet access," Gosper said.

Gosper said the local organizers BOCOG's failure to inform media beforehand that this would not happen was not good enough.

"We've noticed that the words being used by BOCOG have changed in recent months from 'uncensored' to what is more like 'convenient and timely', or 'convenient and available'. These are quite different words," he added.

"Nevertheless, no one has come out publicly and said on behalf of BOCOG or the IOC 'sorry, but there are certain Internet websites which are blocked'," Gosper said. "I think they could have done better."

BOCOG is responsible for directly running the Beijing Games under the auspices of the IOC, which sets general policy. The organizing committee of an Olympics would generally work hand-in-hand with the IOC.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International, whose website is among those barred in China, condemned Internet restrictions during the Games as "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.

Czech ex-president Vaclav Havel and Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu and other campaigners urged athletes to speak up on human rights in China during the Beijing Games.

"We are concerned that the Beijing Olympics might simply become a giant spectacle to distract the attention of the international public from the violations of human and civil rights in China," stated the letter signed by 17 politicians and rights activists and issued in Prague.

BOCOG spokesman Sun Weide said censorship would not prevent journalists from reporting the Games, though he acknowledged there would be no access to some websites. BOCOG consistently assured journalists ahead of the Games that they would have normal access to the Internet.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said his government stood by Olympics reporting rules promising to ease restrictions on foreign journalists.

"Our determination to enforce these regulations is staunch," spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular news conference. "As for how the International Olympic Committee understands these regulations, that's its own affair."

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