Commitment: China will provide a first-class service to the visiting media during the Olympic Games, along with comfortable and well equipped living and working environments and convenient traffic access, to ensure the fast and high efficient reportage of the Games. Foreign journalists are allowed the freedom to report throughout China.

Current status quo: BOCOG unveiled the Regulations on Reporting Activities in China by Foreign Journalists During the Beijing Olympic Games, and the Preparatory Period and the Service Guide for Foreign Media Coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games, valid through the Games. The two documents ensure that international journalists have full freedom to report throughout China, and make it clear that the international media can do interviews simply by obtaining agreement from the interviewees. The two centers for the 21,600 accredited journalists--the Main Press Center for the Olympics, and the International Broadcast Center--, along with the International Press Center of Olympics 2008 serving for non-accredited journalists, opened in July, to provide an overall service for the media worldwide.

(Source: the Beijing News, aoyun.bjipo.gov.cn, 61.135.189.87/new_olympic, and cctv.com)