China's censorship of Web unacceptable: EU

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - EU's telecoms chief Viviane Reding said on Friday that China's censorship of the Internet was "unacceptable" and that the Beijing Olympics were a chance for the country to show its commitment to free flow of information.

Reding, who is the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media said she regards the Internet as a free medium for expression and any curtailment of that is limiting the citizen's right to information. "People should be free to receive information, we do not think blocking of sites for political reasons is the right way to proceed," Reding told Reuters.

"We say, for instance, to the Chinese very clearly that their blocking of certain Internet content is absolutely unacceptable to us," she said.

Reding was in Singapore to launch the European Union Centre to create greater awareness of EU affairs.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, China remains the world's leading jailer of journalists and writers. Beijing also exerts control over its fast-growing Internet sector, seeking to weed out porn and subversive websites.

However, the International Olympic Committee has said it is confident that China will deliver on its commitment to allow freedom to report in line with that enjoyed at previous Games.

"We will see during the Olympic games, when the world is going to look at Beijing (whether) Beijing is going to utilize this opportunity to have a free information flow," Reding said.

With 21,600 journalists accredited for the 2008 Olympics and up to half that number expected to descend on and report from the city without International Olympic Committee credentials, the Beijing Games promise to be the most intensely scrutinized Olympics in history.

(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)