Amnesty International's website is reportedly still accessible in China, but the country's censors have again blocked the sites of other human rights and news organisations.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says its main website, which had been accessible since 1 August, has again been blocked within China. While it was open the site was visited by more than 13,000 Chinese Internet users.

Overseas-based Chinese news and human rights websites are also blocked, along the website of the Tor Project, which provides software to bypass censorship systems, RSF reports.

" …"The freedom allowed to Chinese Internet users for the Beijing Olympic Games, which the authorities had promised, was just an illusion. There is no letup in online censorship in China. We call for the restoration of access to our site and all the other news and information sites that are blocked in China." …"

Winners and losers

Reporters Without Borders says the websites of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the BBC are still accessible, although they’re blocked in Tibet.

About a week before the Olympics started in August, foreign journalists working inside the official media centre caused a storm when they found out they couldn't access the websites of numerous human rights groups – like Amnesty International – and news organisations.

Blocked sites included Chinese-language BBC, Hong Kong's Apple Daily, Germany's Deutsche Welle, US-based Radio Free Asia, Chinese Wikipedia and Human Rights Watch, as well as sites related to sensitive issues, such as Tibet and 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

As a result of the uproar, Chinese authorities capitulated and unblocked access to a number of sites.

Censors still watching

This week Voice of America reported its site, which for years has been blocked in China, is still accessible after it was unblocked.

But that doesn't mean China is no longer censoring the Internet, "it might just mean that the Chinese government is getting better at accentuating a positive image while selectively filtering out any negative viewpoints", they report.

They quote William Baum, the head of their China broadcast service:

" … the country's reported 30,000 Internet monitors are still hard at work. Stories or links within the site that refer to controversial topics like Tibet or Taiwan are still selectively blocked. And Chinese domestic sites have come under even more scrutiny …"