中文

China may relax Internet censorship during the Olympics

BEIJING (AFP) - 5 February , 2008 - China is debating whether to relax control of the Internet during the Olympics, allowing access to banned websites such as the BBC, a spokeswoman for the organising committee said Tuesday. Plans to tear down the so-called Great Firewall (GFW) of China were being debated and a decision was expected soon, said Wang Hui, head of media relations for the organising committee. “We are studying this now based on suggestions of some journalists and a study of the experiences of other countries, so during the Olympics there may be some changes,” she said. “This is one of the ways the Olympics may promote progress in China.”

China tightly polices cyberspace and Chinese web surfers see a stripped-down version of the Internet minus some news sites such as the BBC and those belonging to human rights groups or any other sites judged subversive by the country’s communist rulers. Wang said that changes were expected to be in place in time for the Olympics for the 20,000 foreign journalists planning to cover the Games. “I believe you will be able to (access banned sites such as the BBC) but I can’t give you a promise yet. The relevant government departments are still working on it,” she said.

You can imagine if all these foreign reporters widely broadcast worldwide that Chinese Government wildly censor Internet… It’s a question of face-saving!!! Moreover, maybe these reporters will discover the ugliest thing about censorship in China: the People is quite simply not aware of this censorship!

It was unclear whether Chinese citizens would benefit from the plan to reduce Internet oversight but wider reporting freedoms introduced for foreign journalists here last year have not been extended to domestic reporters. From January 1, 2007, travel and interview restrictions were lifted on foreign journalists working in China in line with the country’s undertaking to provide free access to the country for the media before and during the Games.

In short, it should be better to censor the censorship, just during the Olympic Games!…

By the way, that’s funny to notice that when you look for "李大同谈奥运与互联网管制" (the corresponding news’ title in Chinese), you have more than 400 results in Google and only 5 results on Baidu.com (the Chinese competitor of Google, ranked #1).
Then, when you click on the results, all the corresponding websites are… censored!!! The only reachable website is a forum where a guy posted this article. And there is only one answer to his post: "Liar!". Anyway, let’s gage that the posted article will disappear in the coming days or maybe this website is going to lose it’s ICP number! (any website - provides content and so - is regulated by Chinese Authorities. To operate, they need an "Internet Content Provider (ICP)", provided by the Government).
 
 
 
 
 

责难检查制度!

李大同谈奥运与互联网管制

         据媒体报道，北京奥组委的新闻发言人近日表示，中国正在考虑在08北京奥运会期间解除对部分外国网站的封锁，以方便届时来中国进行报道的外国记者的工作。然而该发言人强调，这只是停留在探讨阶段，政府最终如何决策尚未确定。也就是说，中国有望放宽对互联网领域的新闻管制？
     
         距08北京奥运会还有整整半年时间。中国政府已经在为准备奥运做最后的冲刺。全世界的目光也早已聚焦在中国身上。特别是中国的人权问题以及新闻自由状况尤为引起西方关注。中国在07年初承诺放宽对外国驻华记者的采访限制，保障其出行自由。尽管仍有外国记者抱怨在从事新闻工作中受到监督或是阻挠，但是整体情况有所改善是不可否认的事实。
   
    近日法新社一篇短讯报道，北京奥组委新闻发言人王惠女士向媒体宣布，中国政府正在考虑在08北京奥运期间暂时解除对部分外国网站的封锁，其中包括英国广播公司的网页以及一些人权组织的网站。德国之声的网页也长期遭到封锁。虽然中国各个城市情况不同，但是大部分情况下网友无法登陆德国之声网站浏览信息。王女士不忘补充，解除网页封锁只是政府的一项考虑，并非决策。
   
    由于一些西方记者的建议，以及鉴于其他国家在这方面的经验，中国政府可以考虑在奥运期间做一些政策上的改变。毕竟届时将有2万余名外国记者前往中国报道奥运这一体育盛事。解除对部分外国网页的封锁，是否意味着中国将放宽在互联网领域的新闻管制，实行部分新闻自由？

你能想像如果所有这些外国记者广泛播放在全世界事实中国政府野蛮地检查互联网。。。就是“出于面子考虑“的问题！！！而且，可能这些外国记者会发现最丑的一件事关于检查在中国：人民是很根本就不知道这项检查！
   

    中国资深传媒人士，前“冰点”专刊主编李大同认为，假设中国政府在奥运期间解除网页封锁，也并非出于实行新闻自由考虑：“那当然是出于国际形象的考虑，新闻自由目前根本没有可能。其实，他封锁外国的这些标准的新闻机构的网页本身就是非常的愚蠢。即便是在政治功利上考虑也是很愚蠢的。国外这些专业的媒体信息，如果是不关心的人，你封锁有什么用？如果是关心的人，你也封锁不住。比如说我本人可以随意浏览这些网页。这种封锁反而证明了你自己心虚。如果中国政府从奥运开始对外国严肃媒体的网页实行开放，那无疑是一种进步，值得鼓励。”
   
    中国有二亿网民，互联网早已成为中国人获取信息的重要途径。如果解除对部分境外网站的封锁，可以扩宽中国网民的信息来源，是一件让民众受益的事。而李大同认为，“其实最大的受益者还是中国政府，他的形象会有所改善。如果奥运期间开放的话，奥运之后再封锁也没什么必要。因为你最敏感的时期都过去了，还封锁他干什么？为此还要背上被国际批评的恶名，有什么必要？如果开放了，我认为会就此开放下去。”
   
    李大同同时谈到关于放宽外国驻华记者采访限制的政策在奥运之后也会继续实行，当初定的期限只是“出于面子考虑”。但是关于放宽对互联网的新闻管制，以及解除对境外部分网站的封锁，还有待相关部门的官方证实。在问及放宽对国外网站的封锁，是否会影响对中国国内网站的管制，使得中国国内互联网的新闻环境更宽松一些时，李大同明确表示了他对此的怀疑：“国内网站就不存在封锁的问题了，它可以直接关闭。中国政府历来是内外有别的，对国内网站的控制我到认为，在奥运期间会强化。”

总之，莫如责难检查制度，仅在奥运会的时候！

顺便，很有意思注意：如果你搜寻"李大同谈奥运与互联网管制",有400个结果在Google，可是只有5个结果在百度。。。
然后，如果你要看这些网站，它们都是。。。不能得到的！！！只有一个BBS在哪里一个人复制这个文章。只有一个帖子回答：“骗人的啊！“。
无论如何，在将来，那个文章应该消失 或者可能那个网站会失去它的ICP号码（所有的网站提供内容，所以中国政府管理它们。如果你要一个网站在中国大陆，你需要一个"Internet Content Provider (ICP)"号码。
 
 
Sources:
China may relax Internet censorship during the Olympics
李大同谈奥运与互联网管制
 
 
Vocabulary:
责难 = zénàn = to censor
检查制度 = jiǎnchá zhìdù = censorship
检查 = jiǎnchá = to censor
广泛 = guǎngfàn = widely
播放 = bōfàng = to broadcast
莫如 = mò rú = it would be better
搜寻 = sōuxún = to search
文章 = wénzhāng = essay, article