China Wikipedia Access Not So Impressive

It's good for Chinese Internet users that the government has lifted bans on Wikipedia and Blogspot, but the move isn't the great breakthrough it may seem to be. If the policy change was intended to fulfill requests from the International Olympic Committee for an open internet, it falls well short of any actual freedom of information, writes Jacqui Cheng for Ars Technica.

Chinese surfers are used to sites flickering between banned and available, and remain wary of this recent change. Many users outside of big cities still can't access the newly allowed sites. The IOC's insistance on freedom of operation for foreign journalists during the Olympic Games means much more of the Great Firewall of China needs to come down, Cheng says. (More China stories.)