The unblocking of several important regime-critical websites the past few days makes the internet more free for people in China, not only for journalists in the Olympics press centre. Andrew Lih has compiled a list and observes:

This is actually quite remarkable for folks living in China. The “Big Three” NGOs that have been unrelenting critics of China have been reliably blocked for years. YZZK (Yazhou Zhoukan) and Apple Daily both in Hong Kong, have done some of the most critical journalism regarding China.

The OpenNet Initiative, which does in-depth studies and monitoring of the Great Firewall, notes on their blog:

Another open question is whether China’s Internet filtering practices will be transformed in the rest of the country, and for how long. For most Chinese citizens the situation appears to be more of the same–the usual strict supervision goes into hyperdrive as sensitive political events unfold. As international media focused their attention on websites hosted overseas, China has already tightened control over domestic cyberspace, such as online discussions on online forums and chat rooms.

The “Firewall”, of course, has many aspects. One of the best accounts I have read is James Fallows’ in The Atlantic.