China has blocked the BBC web site for man years. Now the BBC is reporting that their web site is now fully viewable in China. Even more intriguing, BBC staff on location in China are saying that the full web site seems to be available, uncensored.
Is this the huge news story it sounds like it is, or just public relations in time for the Olympics? I’m thinking it is public relations. This is especially likely in light of the uproar from restricting the blogging of athletes during the games and recent military action in Tibet.
China was recently in the news for banning both Google and YouTube web sites. The purpose behind the ban was to prevent footage of the military actions in tibet from reaching the rest of the world. Google caught flak in turn for caving so quickly to China’s demands in order to get it’s web sites unbanned.
The Olympics are scheduled to start in Beijing, China in August. There are already calls going out from average people in a variety of countries to boycott the games because of the military issues in Tibet. With press banned from freely roaming the country and news going both in and out heavily censored, no one really received the full story about what is going on and what type of riots in Tibet required military intervention.
All of this drama and unrest does not help China, who has been trying to project an image of peace and tranquility in the time leading up to the Olympics.
