On Tuesday, sites such as Amnesty International or any search for a site with Tibet in the address could not be opened at the Main Press Centre, which will house about 5,000 print journalists when the Games open on August 8.
Mihai Mironica, a journalist with ProTV in Romania, said: "This type of censorship would have been unthinkable in Athens, but China seems to have more formalities. If journalists cannot fully access the Internet here, it will definitely be a problem."
In bidding for the Games seven years ago, Chinese officials said the media would have "complete freedom to report." And in April, Hein Verbruggen and Kevan Gosper - senior IOC members overseeing the games - said they'd received assurances from Chinese officials that Internet censorship would be lifted for journalists during the Games.
Gosper, however, issued a clarification Tuesday. He said the open Internet extended only to sites that related to "Olympic competitions."
"My preoccupation and responsibility is to ensure that the Games competitions are reported openly to the world," he said. "The regulatory changes we negotiated with BOCOG and which required Chinese legislative changes were to do with reporting on the Games. This didn't necessarily extend to free access and reporting on everything that relates to China."
