International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge said yesterday the IOC did not strike a deal with Chinese authorities to censor Internet access during the Olympic Games.
“The conditions you were working in on Tuesday were not good,” Rogge told reporters, referring to the day when Internet blocks were discovered.
However, Rogge stopped short of offering an apology.
“I am not going to make an apology for something that the IOC is not responsible for. We are not running the Internet in China,” Rogge said.
Meanwhile, IOC press official Kevan Gosper said yesterday the IOC and the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee (BOCOG) had set up a working group to examine which censored sites could be opened up to reporters.
Gosper described the process as a “work in progress.”
Earlier in the week, Gosper, an IOC member for more than 30 years, said that senior organizers had cut a deal with Chinese authorities to block some Web sites.
IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies yesterday brushed off criticism that the IOC had backtracked on requiring Beijing not to censor Web access for reporters.
One reporter quoted Rogge as saying “foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China. There will be no censorship on the Internet.”
Davies said that Rogge, who is Belgian, may have not been precise when he spoke because he was using English, which is not his native tongue.
“I think we are trying to hang on every single word often spoken by people whose mother tongue isn’t English. Let me be clear again: The IOC would like to see open access for the media to be able to do their job,” Davies said.
Numerous times over the last several years, Chinese officials and high-ranking IOC members said there would be no censorship on the Internet for accredited journalists covering the games.
Chinese authorities have repeatedly said reporting would be “free and unfettered.”
In 2001, when China won the right to host the games, BOCOG Executive Vice President Wang Wei (王偉) was widely quoted as saying: “We will give the media complete freedom to report when they come to China.”
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January last year have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
The WHO ignored early COVID-19 warnings from Taiwan, US Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on Friday, as part of justification for Washington withdrawing from the global health body. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said that the US was pulling out of the UN agency, as it failed to fulfill its responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO “ignored early COVID warnings from Taiwan in 2019 by pretending Taiwan did not exist, O’Neill wrote on X on Friday, Taiwan time. “It ignored rigorous science and promoted lockdowns.” The US will “continue international coordination on infectious
RSS