"Reporters rushed to the scene, and there was general feeling that the government had lifted the restrictions on reporters," said Robert Dietz, the Asia program coordinator for the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists. "But the central propaganda department never stopped handing down directives, never stopped telling people how much to report."

That China's response to a massive natural disaster included censorship is no surprise to Dietz, or other panelists speaking about the state of global internet freedom at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference here Friday. China pioneered draconian internet controls with its "Golden Shield" program in 1998 -- better known in the West as the "great firewall."