hurdles for beijing olympics blogs?

The freedom of information through blogs is something we've become accustomed to. But what we take for granted has posed a new type of threat to Chinese authorities as they're hosting the Beijing 2008 Olympics this summer.

The IOC, International Olympic Committee, raised the issue on blogs as early as February. And to make the IOC's stance on this totally clear it issued new guidelines stating that: "The IOC considers blogging ... as a legitimate form of personal expression and not a form of journalism," and to allow bloggers only to do so from unaccredited areas.

China has said it will lift the "Great Shield of China" (an existing Internet firewall) during the Games – not least so the thousands of journalists in Beijing will be able to do their jobs properly, but it is interesting to see that the IOC is attempting to put pressure on the Chinese government. The Beijing officials recently "un-blocked" BBC's website in China, although they never admitted there ever was a block of any kind.

The recent unrest during the world-wide run with the Olympic torch should have alerted Beijing that the world will be watching this summer and not just the athletes. But since when have Chinese authorities taken any notice? This time they might be forced to, if only from their own PR point of view.