China, widely criticised for its censorship of the media, this week blocked access to The New York Times, the newspaper said on Saturday. When computer users in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou tried to connect on Friday to nytimes.com, they received a message that the site was not available, the newspaper said.
There was no access to the site from Beijing late on Saturday without the protection of a virtual private network (VPN). The State Information Office said it had no information on the case. The Foreign Ministry said this week that China, which eased its rein on the Internet before and during the Beijing Olympics in August, was within its rights to block websites with content illegal under Chinese law.