BEIJING, China (AP) -- An Olympic official said Thursday he felt like the "fall guy" after promising reporters at the games they would have uncensored Internet access, only to find that the Chinese had blocked certain Web sites.
Reporters were startled to find certain Web sites blocked at the Olympics Main Press Center in Beijing.
Kevan Gosper, the press commission head of the International Olympic Committee, also said he suspects the IOC leadership probably knew about the change.
Gosper said he was startled to find out earlier this week that Web sites for Amnesty International or others dealing with Tibet, the 1989 protests at Tiananmen Square or the spiritual group Falun Gong would be blocked to reporters at the Olympics Main Press Center in Beijing.
China's communist government routinely filters its citizens' access to the Internet. But for months Gosper, IOC President Jacques Rogge and others have publicly said Beijing agreed to unblock the Web during the games, and they touted the shift as a sign of the Olympics' liberalizing effect on China.
"I have to accept that I appear to be the fall guy and may be the fall guy," Gosper said in an interview with AP Television News.
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