Success of Beijing Games hinges on an unfettered internet

The Australian reports that China has promised to give journalists uncensored internet access during the Olympic Games in 2008. The front page of the official English-language newspaper China Daily reports “Overseas media will be able to freely travel around China and enjoy uncensored access to the internet during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, organisers promised yesterday.” Oh really I guess would be the obvious response with Beijing-based diplomats and so-called foreign business heavyweights thinking this a bit ludicrous. This would seem a bit more likely, as at the press briefing made by the Chinese they were emphatic, the internet is not censored in China.