Inspectors dispatched by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have said that China is obligated to provide journalists with web access under its Games contract. The final inspection before the games begin in August is currently underway and IOC's Kevan Gosper has said "There was some criticism that the Internet closed down during events relating to Tibet in previous weeks - but this is not Games time," Gosper added that "Our concern is that the press is able to operate as it has at previous Games during Games time." 30,000 journalists are expected to be in Beijing covering the Olympics. I suspect that if there are incidents during the games and Internet access goes down, there will be a very good technical reason for the coincidence... whether it reflects poorly upon the host nation or not. BBC News Story here.
