Inspectors for the International Olympic Committee have told Chinese authorities that they expect China to offer unrestricted Internet access for the duration of the Olympic games—as stipulated in the host city contract Beijing committed to when it was selected as host for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
China runs the most extensive Internet surveillance and censorship operation on the planet, routinely restricting Chinese citizens’ access to information and media sources around the world. The Chinese government is usually the first cited in reports decrying net censorship and online speech restrictions: China has imprisoned online journalists and bloggers critical of the Beijing government or who speak out in favor of democracy; more recently, China has shut down access to sites carrying information on unrest in Tibet.
