East-West Center Media Conference

The summer Olympics in Beijing this summer will be spectacular for athletes and spectators, but perhaps a bit less so for journalists covering the games.

That was one message from a panel on covering the Olympics this week at the Center’s Bangkok Media Conference.

Despite promises of new press freedoms, both for international reporters and the local media, the games will be a journalistic challenge, panelists said.

China is anxious to put on its best face for the Olympics, and that will mean anything but the sunniest of reporting will take extra effort, the panel said.Participating were Francesco Liello, correspondent for La Gazetta dello Sport of Italy, Gary Swanson, a consultant to NBC news and a journalist-in-residence at the University of Northern Colorado and Xie Songgxin, a top editor from China Daily who will edit a special daily Olympic newspaper during the games.

The moderator was Jocelyn Ford, a Beijing-based journalist and member of the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of China.

Liello said he has already run into trouble and controversy in his efforts to report the run-up to the games, and he expects more. In fact, he was arrested briefly when he attempted to interview young athletes about possible doping, a situation that had already been reported in the Chinese media.

Another time, he said, he created a stir when he reported that journalists were told no materials with political or religious views could be brought into the Olympic arena.Liello reported that as far as Chinese authorities could tell him, this included the Bible, which obviously would create a problem for the chaplain with the Italian team as well as many others.

After a flareup that went from China to Italy, the United States and back to China, officials backed off and said the entire matter had been a misunderstanding, Liello said.

“There is always criticism at any Olympics,” Liello said. “But China is not accepting any criticism. It is behaving like the old system when Mao was there.”

Ford said conditions for the international media are improving, but journalism within China still remains a challenging business. A survey by the Foreign Correspondents Club, she said, found some 180 respondents out of some 400 journalists reporting problems such as harassment and denial of access. (See details here).

Swanson said the biggest challenge will be when the American media looks beyond the sports themselves for other stories about China. Some of those stories, he said, will inevitably be critical and China won’t like that.

The news departments, not necessarily sports reporters, will be looking at stories about, among other things, terrorism, doping, pollution, corruption, prostitution, population, human rights and more, Swanson said.

There is no doubt the Olympics will be visually and athletically “amazing,” Swanson said. But that could be overshadowed if authorites in Beijing and elsewhere overreact.

“China has the ability to make the Olynmpics the best they can be,” he said,

“But if freedom of the press is offered and then taken away it will be one of the biggest topics in the world.”

Xie said the Chinese government is more than aware that the world’s eyes will be on it and is doing everything it can to ensure the games will be a logistical, cultural, athletic and physical success. This is important for China’s reputation in the rest of the world, but also for domestic morale, Xie said.

“The Chinese people treasure the Olynpic games, ” he said. “It is a matter of national pride - a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see it on our own doorstep.

“The government is making use of the Olymnpic games not only to improve its image in the intenational community but also for burnishing national pride,” he said.