Loading ...After discovering the latest omen of the world’s coming demise, the Clog encourages Berkeley students to put down their books and enjoy their short-lived time on earth.
Unfortunately, the title isn’t a reference to illegal, bootlegged copies of Chinese porn or anything like that. Instead, the Communist government notorious for Platonically enlightening its citizens by denying them access to terrabytes of information decided to give in to criticism and allow journalists access they didn’t have before. That’s more than we can say for our wireless connection, which annoyingly loves to cut out every 15 minutes or so.
In his defense, Jacques Rogge—president of the International Olympic Committee—was quoted as saying “The Chinese authorities are running the Internet,” a statement with great comedic potential if it’s kept out of context.
But seriously, we understand why the ten trillion or so journalists in China to cover the Olympics would need unrestricted access to, say, the Wikipedia page on Falun Gong, the Tiananmen Square Massacre or even thousands of normally-restricted images. After all, it’s journalistic procedure to criticize the Chinese Communist Party as much as possible if such criticism can remotely, if unconvincingly, be brought into the story.
But hey, it’s the Olympics—we should keep the spirit of international cooperation in mind and leave out the politics. After all, that’s what the Olympics are all about! Right guys? Right?
Image Source: eschlaik under Creative Commons
IOC being grilled on Internet censorship [Chron]
Earlier: Crazy Kids
Tags:China, Communism, great comedic potential, Internet access, Sign of the Apocalypse, tiananmen square massacre
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