Says Canada’s CTV:

A deal between the International Olympic Committee and China will allow the communist country to block journalists from sensitive websites during the Beijing Games in August.

IOC press chief Kevan Gosper said Wednesday that the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) will impose “limitations on website access.”

Neither this article, nor any other news source, could say what it was the the IOC got in return for agreeing to this. It would appear that the answer is “nothing”. But that’s what would be implied by the word “deal”, right? Perhaps the terms “compromises”, “accepts the inevitable”, or simply “caves in” are more appropriate.

Certainly, as an IOC official states in the above link, the sites being blocked have nothing to do with the Olympic Games directly (they’re mostly related to human rights or dissident groups, like Falun Gong), but that’s not the point here. Beijing promised that journalists would have the same freedoms in this Olympics as they had in previous Olympics, which will obviously not happen now.

The best way for the IOC, and the world at large, to respect China is to hold the government to it’s word.

IOC – International Organization of Cowards