winning press freedom conference

After covering ten Games for the Associated Press, Steve Wilson is an expert dealing with local authorities to have full access to events taking place both inside and outside the Olympic Village.

But he warns that most Chinese people consider the international media coverage of the Tibet protests biased, unfair and an affront to the country’s reputation.

And he fears this anger may be taken out on some of the 30,000 journalists who are expected to cover the Beijing Olympics.

How Would China Handle Tens of Thousands of Journalists?
By Steve Wilson

These Games pose a number of problems for the country and for journalists. When I was last in China, there was a lively atmosphere with all the protests throughout the world.

Throughout the time I was there, nothing was ever raised about the readiness of the games, nothing about the air pollution, nothing about sports came up.

These events involve much more than sports events. The IOC had been asked about the hot topic issues, and IOC President Jacques Rogge would not be drawn into that debate. He suggested that they will not be involved in politics. He did speak about the Jan. 1, 2007 law that lifted many restrictions about foreign press in China that they weren't able to do before.

My colleagues said there's much they can do now. It seems that the problem remains that they can be undermined on the local level, where interview subjects can be intimidated not to cooperate with the media.

The fallout from the Tibet rebellion has been strong. Many Chinese feel that the coverage of the Tibet issue has been biased. There has been many threatening phone calls made against journalists, including against our own.

The current situation and hostility against the western media is not good. The media could find it difficult in these next months that the people they want to talk to will be more reluctant to cooperate, to speak with the media.

Those who haven't been to China before need to know that there are some realities about the country. For example, BBC World or CNN are available only in compounds where foreigners are living and in hotels.

Chinese citizens don't have access to them. These newscasts are blacked out for citizens. The censors can black out CNN mid-broadcast if its content had to do with the Tibet crack down.

Now, when world media is in town, the black-outs are lessened and certain websites are blocked. The internet should be unblocked during the Olympics. Part of the host city contract requires this access.

TV broadcasters have concerns. There was some suggestion that broadcasting live from Tiananmen Square may not be allowed.

Will the authorities censor live television coverage of the Games if something goes wrong for them? We've been assured we can broadcast live without any problems.

10,500 athletes, and 5,000 coaches and trainers will be there. Twenty-eight sports will be contested there. 30,000 journalists will be there, three for every athlete. Of that number, approximately 20,000 will be accredited, leaving 10,000 un-accredited, which is a problem.

They will not have access to games and venues, but they will have access to information flowing from the Games. This raises issues for the Chinese. What do we expect? It will be a challenge. Many journalists will be interested in what's happening outside the games, how things are changing in China.

How China deals with that will be interesting because the success of the Olympics will be determined by the press. From our company's standpoint, we've covered the Games for many years, we'll have up to 300 people on site, editors, writers, television crews, multi-media, etc. We as a company are counting on the same working conditions as with other Olympics.

We expect to work there as always, to cover the news as thoroughly, accurately and fairly as we can. Journalists really want and crave smooth working conditions, to get to the venues on time, to connect their computers, to file the information via a communication system. So far, we have had problems in one venue, where buses were late taking us there.

Steve Wilson has covered 10 Olympic Games for Associated Press.