The International Olympic Committee has acknowledged that foreign journalists in Beijing will be blocked from accessing websites critical of the Chinese government during the Olympic Games. Banned sites include Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders and the BBC’s Chinese language site. A Beijing Olympics spokesperson defended the censorship.

Sun Weide, Beijing Olympics spokesperson: “Similar to practices in other countries, China is acting in accordance with its laws with regards to control of the internet. According to Chinese law, the internet cannot be used to transmit information that is illegal, such as promoting the evil cult Falun Gong or threatening national security. So we hope that the media will respect Chinese laws and regulations.”

Reporters Without Borders has issued a guide on how journalists can use proxy servers to get around China’s censorship. Meanwhile, the Chinese government has sent a fifty-four-year-old school worker to a labor camp for a year for posting photographs online of schools that collapsed during the May earthquake.