BBC staff working in China are reporting that – after years of being blocked - they are able to access stories on the BBC news website.

Although Beijing has never admitted to blocking access to BBC news stories it has been the case for nearly a decade that the only way for people in China to reach the site was by using a proxy server based outside of the country.

There has been no official confirmation that the website has been unblocked but statistics show that traffic to the website from China has been much higher than usual.

The Chinese authorities had promised to give foreign journalists more freedom in the run-up to this summer’s Olympic Games.

But analysts say that recent outbreaks of unrest in Tibet have made this promise more difficult for Beijing to uphold.

The BBC and other media organisations still find reporting from Tibet very difficult - foreign journalists were refused permission to enter the region during the recent protests.

So, is this a genuine loosening of web censorship in China or just a temporary PR move in the run up to the Olympics?

Update

China Forums (via) suggest the site is now available across most of the country. Other sites including the Guardian are also now available, but Wikipedia and YouTube are still blocked.

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