The concept of serving media is hopefully to become one of Beijing Olympic Games legacies, said one of the Games organizers on Friday.

 

Sun Weijia, Media Operations department director of Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG), admitted that media service was a new concept to China's event organizers.

 

"We hope that the concept of media service can be widely accepted after the Olympic Games because it is part of what we call Olympic Legacy," said Sun. "Not just for sport events, other big events, say, Shanghai World Expo in 2010, can also benefit from it."

 

"I also hope that the concept can be introduced as one subject in colleges and universities because we don't yet have classes involving media service. New subjects such as advertisement, marketing had been added to news curriculum but media service, as an independent subject, is worth of studying," he said.

 

The Chinese government and BOCOG promised to offer high-quality services to the media and BOCOG president Liu Qi stressed and reiterated at last year's World Broadcaster Meeting and the World Press Briefing of the Games that China will honor its commitments in the bidding process to provide quality and convenient services to the media.

 

"It is inevitable that China have certain laws, policies and regulations that differ from Olympic tradition but we have promised to follow the Olympic regulations and tradition," he said.

 

"In the past two years, we have adapted a series of policies and procedures to the Olympics. The new regulations for foreign, Hong Kong, Macao and Chinese Taipei journalists in covering Beijing Olympics are best examples of our efforts," Sun said.

 

At the end of last year, China issued Regulations on Reporting Activities in China by Foreign Journalists during the Beijing Olympic Games and the Preparatory Period, which came into force on January 1, 2007 and expire on October 17, 2008.

 

The regulations allow foreign journalists to report in China without having to be accompanied or assisted by a Chinese official.

 

Foreign journalists are also allowed to hire Chinese citizens to assist them in their reporting activities, through organizations providing services to foreign nationals, according to the regulations.

 

According to the regulations, foreign journalists who hold valid identity and accreditation cards for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Paralympics can also travel to China visa free.

 

The regulations stipulate that foreign journalists may bring a reasonable quantity of reporting equipments into China duty free for their own use. They may also bring in, install and use radio communication equipment on a temporary basis for reporting activities, after completing the required application and approval procedures.

 

China also issued similar regulations for Hong Kong, Macao and Chinese Taipei journalists in December, 2006.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2007)