Foreign publications will be accessible to foreign participants
at the Olympic Games in 2008, when a ban on the printing of foreign
newspapers and magazines is temporarily lifted next year, Liu
Binjie, minister of the General Administration of Press and
Publication, has said.
This is in accordance with the practice adopted by previous
Olympics hosts that overseas delegations and athletes can read
newspapers from their home countries, Liu said.
To achieve this, overseas publications will be printed in the
country, imported from abroad, or electronic versions will be
accessible. Currently some foreign publications, imported from
overseas, are already available in hotels and some other venues
that foreign people often patronize.
"We will sum up the experience of the Olympic Games period and
map out measures to be taken in the future," Liu said in an
interview on the sidelines of the 17th National Congress of the
Communist Party of China.
Liu said the country's laws ruled out foreign publications being
directly printed and distributed in China.
"This direction has been set," Liu said, adding some foreign
publications in special economic zones were going through
procedures permitting them to be published.
Some overseas publications are already widely circulated in
China, in cooperation with their domestic counterparts.
Liu said the country backs local newspapers, publishing groups
and government news websites to engage in domestic and overseas
exchanges as part of broad reforms of the previously
State-sponsored industry.
The long-awaited listing of Liaoning Publishing Group, one of
China's largest, is expected to go ahead within two months, with 13
other publishing groups preparing listings.
Liu said the publisher would now list all its operations, but
soaring local stock prices had prompted it to issue its shares
domestically, rather than in Hong Kong as originally planned.
Liu said authorities were also pushing for public share issues
by government news websites.
"By being listed they can raise capital and boost their
strength, further extending the reach of our propaganda policies,"
Liu said.
Liu said any newspaper that successfully reformed its corporate
structure could list in China or overseas.
(China Daily Ocotber 22, 2007)