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[badkarma]

As you might know the Olympic Games 2008 in China are starting this weekend. Now here in Germany there have been a lot of discussions going about China and how they censor the Internet Access for reporters and all that. Now, noone really should have expected anything else, especially as China is well known for their censorship and blocking everything that criticizes the chinese Government or the way they run their country.

I don´t know how many times i have read about chinese Bloggers being detained for writing articles that were sort of frowned upon by chinese officials.

So much for freedom of speech and democratics over there. Now what i don´t quite get is that:
Everyone was aware of the Censorship in place. Yet promises were made that there would be unrestricted access to internet resources available.These promises were made by the IOC president Jacques Rogge, which now is saying he would never have said that. That i find kind of disturbing, because i remember him saying that in a press conference broadcasted on german television.

All these circumstances make the games look like a farce to me, and apparently to a lot of other people as well when i have a look at the german television, newspapers, etc. So i was wondering how this is dealt with in the countries you live in ? Does everyone moan about that censorship as well, or do you take it more relaxed and don´t care about the censorship that much really ?

[Mike]

I live in the USA, and here we do not have censorship in the media, just in music really. Although, the USA is slowly becoming a communist country like China. 

I can't speak for all of America, but personally, it doesn't bother me much that they are censored. If it was in my backyard, then I probably would be a little worked up over it.

The only thing I don't understand about the Olympics is this. China is a communist country, shouldn't we as citizens, be trying to do away with communism? It really isn't our place to tell them how to govern their country, but communism is as close to slavery as you can get in my opinion!

Another thing that bothers me is, Russia just went to war with some country, I don't recall the name now but, there is a rule that no matter what is going on in the world, whether it be wars or other disturbance, there shall be peace for the 2 - 3 weeks that the Olympics is going on. I personally think that Russia should not be allowed to compete in any fo the games because of their attack on the other country in a time fo peace.

[www.adsellez.com]

The country you are refering 2 is Georgia. And I would have to respectfully disagree about censorship.. American media is highly censored.! Just search underground newsites. Most networks here in the US are corporate puppets only reporting what the higher ups see fit! We really have no idea whats going on globally let alone here in the US.. They will never condemn communism because they admire China and are closet communists them selves. Our freedoms are being secretly erased. take a look at the laws Mr. Bush has passed sice2000. Some seem very Communist or should I say similar to a dictatorship!!!

[badkarma]

The country you are refering 2 is Georgia. And I would have to respectfully disagree about censorship.. American media is highly censored.! Just search underground newsites. Most networks here in the US are corporate puppets only reporting what the higher ups see fit! We really have no idea whats going on globally let alone here in the US.. They will never condemn communism because they admire China and are closet communists them selves. Our freedoms are being secretly erased. take a look at the laws Mr. Bush has passed sice2000. Some seem very Communist or should I say similar to a dictatorship!!!

Yepp, all hell broke loose in Georgia. It´s in the media all the time here in Germany, and the pictures you see are shocking. Until now i didn´t get what´s that all about and who is fighting who down there. That aside and back to the censorship thing. Personally i think that in almost every country there is some sort of censorship in place. As far as Germany is concerned i can´t say that there is "a lot" of censorship going on here, which certainly doesn´t mean we have none, just not that much that it would really matter and prevent you from getting the information about what you want from where you want.

About freedoms being secretly erased...well that´s a thing we can compete with. Our Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Schäuble, is working on a lot of things, one being the so called "Bundestrojaner" which basically is a trojan horse that´s planted into computers, PDAs and other things. Though he assures, that it will be only used when there is a suspicion of a capital crime, you never know if he is telling the truth or not. Personally i don´t believe him, and i don´t like my computer being penetrated by some shitty government piece of software, that´s for sure. It might take a few years until that Bundestrojaner thing will be in place, but it WILL come. That´s just one thing that makes me think of leaving Germany again and head some place else.