This week's first story about the politics of information control: the Olympics have officially forbidden live blogging of this year's Olympics (edited to add) by athletes.
From CNN:
Participants in the games may respond to written questions from reporters or participate in online chat sessions -- akin to a face-to-face or telephone interview -- but they may not post journals or online diaries, blogs in Internet parlance, until the Games end August 29.To protect lucrative broadcast contracts, athletes and other participants are also prohibited from posting any video, audio or still photos they take themselves, even after the games, unless they get permission ahead of time. (Photos taken by accredited journalists are allowed on the personal sites.)
Here's one, anyway.
Dan Gillmor sees this as another defensive act by old media. In Gillmor's blog's comments stream, Seth Finkelstein compares this ban to the practice of controlling information flow for live or "hot news."
More generally, given the nationalism usually attached to Olympics hosting, this looks like a combination of state and corporate control of information flow.
(via Dan Gillmor)
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