Empty promises: IOC admits to censorship

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has admitted that it consented to Chinese government censorship of certain websites, proving that all pledges made since 2001 that the media would have “full, open and free internet access during the Games” were but empty promises.

On July 30, IOC Press Commission Chairman Kevan Gosper issued a public apology, admitting that IOC officials had agreed with the Chinese government’s plans to censor certain websites during the 2008 Games. The Chinese government routinely restricts the internet content available to its citizens. Websites with content the Chinese government considers “sensitive,” including those of certain foreign media, have long been off-limits to Chinese citizens via official controls on domestic internet service providers. However, the Chinese government in 2001 promised the IOC that such controls would not apply to the internet access of foreign media and athletes at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Over the last year, human rights and other non governmental organisations have pressured the IOC to intervene with the Chinese government to uphold ‘human dignity’ and ‘fundamental ethics,’ as stipulated by the Olympic Charter. “But now we know that not only did the IOC fail to do that, it actually helped perpetuate censorship, one of the most common abuses in China today” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

Foreign journalists uncovered the internet restrictions this week at the Beijing Olympics Main Press Center when attempting to access websites of foreign human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters Sans Frontières, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Human Rights in China. Reporters were also unable to access the web pages of Tibetan and Uighur groups, as well as those of the Falun Gong, which the Chinese government has classified as an “evil cult,” including the sites of media outlets associated with the Falun Gong, such as New Tang Dynasty and the Epoch Times. One journalist told Human Rights Watch that although the US State Department’s website was not blocked, its annual human rights report on China would not open.

Human Rights Watch’s requests for clarification from the IOC over the past day have gone unanswered. In a January meeting with the IOC in Lausanne, Switzerland, and in correspondence since then, Human Rights Watch warned IOC officials about internet censorship in China.

“By enabling the Chinese government’s Olympic censorship, the IOC is setting a pernicious precedent for future Games,” said Richardson. “The IOC must take immediate steps to make public what Beijing promised and to fix this debacle.”

How to counter China’s censorship

Human Rights Watch directs journalists working inside China to use available technologies for circumventing government internet censorship and enhancing the security of their email communications.

These tools must be set up prior to arrival in mainland China:

– A Virtual Private Network which creates a “tunnel” between the user’s computer and a remote network (e.g. WiTopia Personal VPN);

– Tor software to help counter surveillance of visited websites or Psiphon, an open source web proxy designed to help bypass content-filtering systems.

 

For more information about China’s Great Internet Firewall: Reporters’ Guide to Covering the Beijing Olympics.

Read Human Rights Watch’s internet censorship report: Race to the Bottom: Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship.