If you live in China and can read English, the BBC website is now unblocked. If you don't choose to, or cannot, read your news in English, the page returns an error message of ACCESS DENIED.

Not exactly a model story of China reversing censorship, but perhaps a start.

According to the Chinese Government, it did not block internet access to the renowned world news service. Was it coincidence, that in recent years, even days, internet users all over China trying to access pages on the BBC website were almost always redirected to an error message telling them: "The connection was reset."

BBC report that the firewall remains in place for Chinese language services on their website and for the same type of "reset" message occurs when the user attempts to click any links in Chinese.

It is obviously great to see news services other than those owned and operated by the Chinese Government available in China. However, the access in English language only does raise concerns about more window dressing for the Beijing Games. Visitors to China will want to digest their usual news from home whilst they are in the country - for them, the firewall may not be so obvious. For the Chinese speaking / reading internet user at the next computer - the wall is very real. C'mon China, lets say that 'free and unrestricted media access' as promised for the Games (and in the lead up to them).

Imagine all that lost advertising revenue. In the West when we log onto BBC, CNN, SMH and most other news services, ads jump out us with amazing graphics, targeted messages, tempting colours. There are now 200 million internet users in mainland China, more than any other country in the world. Surely Google and Yahoo! have a profit margin interest in giving advertisers online exposure to this booming market? I'd like to think these companies and the other internet providers operating in China had an interest in pressuring China to cease censorship based on the very tenets of the internet and information sharing. However if this is not the case, surely someone will see the advertising dollar potential.