Most people take for granted that a simple click of a mouse can transport you to almost every corner of cyberspace. Not so in China. At least, not until pressure from the International Olympic Committee forced censors to open up a crevice yesterday in the “Great Firewall” that blocks many websites.

For the first time in many years the website of the human rights group Amnesty International was easily accessible. No longer did the computer crash after coming into contact with a site blocked by the censors. The homepage slid open in seconds. It was a moment of surprise at the relaxation and delight at the knowledge that working as a journalist had just become a little easier.

But the limits of that liberalisation soon became clear. It was impossible to open a page entitled “Join the China Debate” on the Olympics, which remained blocked by China’s cyberspace police.

Sites related to the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which is banned by China as an illegal cult, remained off limits. Chinese-language pages linked to dissidents and to the Tibetan government-in-exile were still out of bounds. Details of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre could be found on Wikipedia in English but triggered a filter in Chinese.

The lifting of some restrictions comes after the disclosure that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Games organisers had reached a deal allowing Chinese censors to block sites deemed sensitive or harmful to national security. The issue created dissent in the top ranks of the IOC after previous pledges of unfettered access during the Games.

Pressure from the IOC in talks on Thursday brought results. The website of Reporters Without Borders was accessible – although not its Chinese-language page. The BBC’s Chinese-language website became available to reporters at the Main Press Centre and to many ordinary Chinese across Beijing. Blocks on the main BBC English site were lifted a few months ago after several years.

Kevan Gosper, the IOC Press Commission chairman, said that sites deemed subversive by China would remain behind the firewall but others were being opened to comply with Beijing’s promise of a noncensored Olympics. “We are in the process of getting websites which were previously blocked unblocked,” he said.

Many sites will remain inaccessible. But the opening of at least some of the eight main nodes linking China’s internet with the rest of the world means that many of China’s 253 million internet users will have access to a few long-blocked sites at least until the end of the Games on August 24.

Outspoken Chinese writers were unimpressed. Liu Xiaobo, a prominent dissident, told The Times: “The authorities really didn’t have a choice if they were to fulfil the promises they made to win the Olympics. But this is just a matter of opening up for a fortnight and, frankly, most of these sites are in English and of interest only to foreigners.”

Even yesterday it was impossible to watch a video on YouTube of the exiled Dalai Lama, whose image is banned in China. Within seconds the computer had crashed, setting off a punishment system that locks me out for 15 minutes.

Some comfort lay in newfound access to Radio Free Asia, where pieces about Tibet were written in English, Chinese and even Tibetan.