Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Chinese authorities unblock BBC News website


Without warning or explanation, the BBC News website is today visible in China for the first time since I arrived last summer.
The Chinese government never comments on decisions to censor, block or unblock media so there is no way of knowing why BBC is now accessible or how long it will last.
In the past, sites like Blogspot and Flickr have all been unblocked for periods of varying length, only to be back on the blacklist days or weeks later. YouTube has a habit of disappearing from time to time, and The Guardian was among the many foreign websites shut out during the height of recent unrest in Tibet.
Let's hope BBC News remains accessible and that it continues to call it as it sees it when it comes to China.
Better still, maybe Wikipedia, Flickr and the millions of blogs currently off limits will soon be visible inside the People's Republic. We may cross our fingers rather than hold our breath.

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