The Australian reports that Beijing 2008 officials won’t do any phone interviews with international media in case they are from the outlawed spiritual group Falun Gong.
According to the newspaper, an interview with Jiang Xiaoyu, BOCOG executive vice-president in charge of media and communications for its most recent article had been arranged months ago.
Jiang told The Australian, “for example the Falun Gong cult is illegal in China but they have their own journalists”. But he added that there won’t be any problem if there are written requests for interviews.
A year ago a Beijing-based Associated Press photographer was beaten up by a plainclothes policeman while photographing the violent scuffles, which broke out after China was defeated by Japan in the Asian Cup soccer final, reports the newspaper. Although the policeman was photographed no known disciplinary action was taken even though there was evidence provided and protests to the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Public Security by the Foreign Correspondents Club of China.
It is illegal for foreign journalists in China to interview any Chinese citizens or travel outside Beijing without government permission, says the newspaper, adding that those two rules are frequently used by provincial party functionaries to detain foreign journalists.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been urging BOCOG to get outside help on dealing with the media, but has not been too successful. The BOCOG media office confirmed during the weekend it is looking to appoint a leading international public relations firm by the end of this year. Australian IOC member Kevan Gosper, deputy chairman of the IOC’s Coordination Commission for the Beijing 2008 Games “from our point of view that would not be a bad thing”.
Beijing 2008 is also hesitating to seek outside help in its security planning. Peter Phillips, a former key adviser to Beijing’s 2008 bid, said Beijing’s aim is to provide effective security of the Games at a lower cost than Athens and “without making it look like they run the joint like an armed camp”. He says key decisions on systems, procurement and training need to be made urgently, but “nothing appears to be happening” because the Chinese are so worried about appearing not to be able to manage security themselves. As a result Olympic venues are going up without security features. They will have to be built in later, which will be “very expensive and probably sub-optimal” said Phillips.
