A multi sourced sampling: Death threats against foreign reporters, government condemnation of international media, increasing political pressure on Chinese sources: This is not the free, open reporting climate the Chinese government promised for the 2008 Olympics. http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4534 More Foreigners find Beijing becomes a forbidden city before Olympics http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080605.wolympics05/BNStory/International/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080605.wolympics05 Priorities are misplaced as China readies for Games http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-sp-dwyre10-2008jun10,0,6714672.column Resources that will be used to put country in international spotlight in August would be better spent on helping victims of massive earthquake. But no one is questioning letting the Games go on. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JF12Ad02.html Nearly three months after the first riots broke out there, foreign journalists remain banned from the autonomous region. Hong Kong and Taiwanese reporters were recently given a four-day tour of the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, however, and even that officially monitored journalistic junket turned up stories that clashed with the central government's one-sided portrayal of what happened. Meanwhile, Beijing has agreed to meetings with envoys of the Dalai Lama - who has repeatedly renounced violence, supported the Beijing Olympics and stated that he does not seek an independent Tibet - while continuing to vilify him and his "Dalai clique" in state media. It may be too much to expect Beijing to reach an accommodation with the Dalai Lama on the status of Tibet, but it would be nice to see the vilification campaign stop. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/03/opinion/edwang.php The Chinese people are not their government. Since 1989, my country, China, and its people have changed much. But the government has changed remarkably little. The many dissidents still behind bars today represent a national tragedy as well as a political humiliation. When bidding for the Olympics both times, Beijing solemnly vowed before the world to improve its human rights conditions. Yet the autocrats who control the Chinese Communist Party - the only political force allowed to operate in the country since 1949 - continue to crack down on any voices asking for some of the most basic human rights. To distract from this record of repression, the Chinese government is attempting to use the Olympic Games to once again propagate a new economic "leap forward" model, with narrow-minded nationalism as its flag.