Chinese president and Communist Party chief Hu Jintao said China would stand by its pledge to lift internet censorship for foreign media reporting on the Olympics.
Until now, the pledge was being broken, with some human rights, western media, and religious websites blocked from within the media village serving more than 20,000 members of the press.
The promised earlier this week to hold games organisers to their promises to drop censorship. But the organisation鈥檚 press chief, Kevan Gosper, now admits that some IOC officials cut a deal to let China block sensitive websites.
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Both IOC and Chinese officials now say there will finally be unrestricted access.
鈥淭he issue has been solved,鈥� IOC vice-president Gunilla Lindberg says.
鈥淭he IOC Coordination Commission and BOCOG met last night and agreed,鈥� she says, referring to Beijing鈥檚 Olympic organisers. 鈥淚nternet use will be just like in any Olympics.鈥�
Although internet access will be free for reporters for the period of the games, it is still tightly controlled for the rest of the country.
