Journalism and the Beijing Olympics

The majority expect the organisers to respect Western ideals of press and media freedom and that the media can travel anywhere and report what they want. 

Meanwhile Chinese reporters are attempting to become better sports journalists by adopting some of the working methods used by journalists in the West

Learn more

Regulations on Reporting Activities in China by Foreign Journalists During the Beijing Olympic Games and the Prepatory Period

Service Guide for Foreign Media Coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games and the Preparatory Period   

Speak No Evil: Mass Media Control in Contemporary China

China’s New Internet Restrictions

Reuters help Xinhua journalists prepare for Olympics

Articles

Promises and reality in foreign reporting from the Olympics
Organisers of the Olympic Games in Beijing have promised that foreign journalists can travel freely around China, interview who they want and enjoy uncenscored access to the Internet during the Games. However, the application of new reporting regulations show that there is still some way between promises and reality.

Training sports journalists for the Olympics
At Play the Game 2005, sports journalist Mary Nicole Nazzaro talked about the efforts to build a sports journalism programme at Shantou University in China. The cultural challenges inherent in bringing Western-style sports journalism training to China are significant. Hands-on journalism training are not the norm in China and sending students out into the field to report, even on something as harmless-seeming as a sports event, is sometimes construed by potential interview subjects as threatening.

China relaxes rules on foreign reporters in the run-up to the Olympics
China has issued a new set of rules for foreign journalists who want to cover issues in China up to and during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. According to a spokesperson from the Foreign Ministry, foreign reporters will be allowed to travel anywhere in the country without prior permission from local authorities.

Foreign correspondents say China is not ready to host Olympic press corps
Two years before more than 20,000 international journalists are expected to go to China to cover the Beijing 2008 Olympics, a survey by the Foreign Correspondents Club of China shows that Chinese authorities frequently detain foreign reporters, and occasionally use violence against them and their sources.