CHINA: The Chinese authorities have unblocked a number of websites of Western news agencies in an apparent easing of access to information in China.
The websites of the Washington Post, CNN, Reuters and the Los Angeles Times were available yesterday for the first time in months through local Internet service providers.
Foreign news organisations have been lobbying hard for China to lift blocks on their sites. China is deeply suspicious of foreign media.
The reason for the apparent lifting of the blocks was not immediately clear and it was not known if the measure would last. In the past blocks have been lifted on a temporary basis, such as for the visit of President Bush to Shanghai for a meeting of APEC in October. On the day Mr Bush left China, the websites were blocked again.
While blocks were lifted on several news organisation, the BBC news website and Time magazine were still not accessible yesterday. The New York Times website has remained unblocked since last summer after President Jiang Zemin said during an interview with the paper's senior editors that he would look into the matter.
China has recently increased the number of "Internet police" monitoring cyber traffic and Internet service providers have been instructed to give details of account holders to officials. News stories being transmitted by journalists by e-mail on sensitive issues in China such as Falun Gong or Taiwan are often bounced back.