The official in charge of
media operation at the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee for the Games of the
XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) has highlighted China's legal guarantee that foreign media
will be permitted to freely conduct news coverage during the Games.
"President Liu Qi made a commitment to the world media at the 2006 World
Broadcaster Meeting in August; but what he said recently at the world press
briefing was about laws and regulations," said Sun Weijia, director of the Media
Operation Department of BOCOG.
During the First World Press Briefing for the 2008 Olympic Games, in late
September, BOCOG President Liu Qi announced new regulations regarding news
coverage by foreign media during the Olympic Games in line with Olympic
practices. The regulations will be released and take effect in 2007, after a
legislative review.
"The legislative procedures usually take a very long time in every country,
but we have promised to issue the regulations in a very short time," Sun said.
According to Sun, Chinese government departments concerned have taken great
efforts to work out services for the foreign media who will cover the Olympic
Games in Beijing and even in the rest of China.
"The new regulations will mark great progress concerning the management of
foreign media in China," Sun said. "The foreign media will enjoy press freedom
in China as long as they obey Chinese laws and regulations. There will be no
restrictions in what they report or who they interview. I believe after the new
regulations are issued, the foreign media will work under the same conditions as
they have in all previous Games."
To offer satisfying services to the journalists from all over the world,
Sun's department has put in a lot of work in the past few years. During the
one-week briefing, they updated the world media on the preparatory work for the
Beijing Olympics, media operations in particular, and heard opinions and
suggestions. They also arranged city tours and venue tours for the
representatives at the meeting.
"With the venue tour and the presentations, I feel very confident that the
Beijing Games are going to be special," said Robert Condron, director of Media
Services of the United States Olympic Committee. "The venues are amazing for
every sport. The people are very helpful and very professional. They want to
make the Games good."
The approval from the world media greatly relieved the Beijing organizers.
"After the briefing, all the attendees said their expectations about the
Beijing Games had been raised and they all used words like 'phenomenal success'
and 'huge achievement' to describe the briefing as well as the preparatory work
of the Games," said Sun. "Such high expectations will push us to keep working
hard."
Media services were tested at two events this year in Beijing and Qingdao,
giving the department some much needed experience.
"The test events were good opportunities for us to assess our plans and
through the events we found that most of our plans are practical," said Sun.
"But we still have to improve our news services at the Games time."
As the department to facilitate all the media that cover the Games, the Media
and Operation Department of BOCOG has 51 staff members. Almost all of the
leadership of the group has experienced working in the media, including Sun
himself.
"My experience working as a journalist has helped me a lot in the present
work since I can communicate with reporters without difficulty and I can put
myself in their position," said Sun, 44, who used to be a journalist at Xinhua.
"But the change from being a reporter to a person that serves the media is a
great challenge to me as well."
"In the lead up to the Games time, we need more people with experience in the
media, cross-culture communication and fluent English language ability," Sun
said. "To provide professional Olympic news service, we also welcome experienced
foreign staff to come. The team for the media services at Games time will surely
be an international group."
In its next step, the department will focus on implementing the plans.
"We are now at the stage of carrying out the plans and further improving the
plans," Sun said. "We will go on to work closely with the media from all over
the world to assess their needs and improve our work."
