Good services and friendly environment will be provided to facilitate media coverage at the Beijing Olympic Games next year, Liu Jingmin, Vice Mayor of Beijing and Executive Vice President of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) said in Beijing at the opening of the 2nd World Press Briefing on 11 October.

    Liu Jingmin said that as part of the preparatory work, the Chinese government has implemented regulations and BOCOG has issued guide for foreign media's coverage of the Olympic Games.

    He referred to the Regulations on Reporting Activities in China by Foreign Journalists during the Beijing Olympic Games and the Preparatory Period and BOCOG's Service Guide for Foreign Media Coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games and the Preparatory Period, both issued earlier this year.

    Liu also explained the "one-stop" service offered at the Beijing Olympic Media Centre.
"Since launching the service more than three months ago, we have provided administrative review and approval services for nearly 40 media organizations, and advisory services for more than 300 cases," said Liu.

    He added that during the Good Luck Beijing Sport Events, the centre provided services to 5,382 accredited journalists from 145 local and international media organisations.

    Liu told the meeting that BOCOG will follow Olympic practices and honour its Olympic commitment. It will also strengthen its cooperation and exchange with the media in the 302 days leading up to the Games, and will focus on five areas:

    -- study the media needs and practices of the Games to improve media service-related policies and procedures;

    -- work with the relevant authorities to firm up the relevant regulations, policies and procedures;

    -- improve the "One-Stop" services to provide more efficient and practical media services;

    -- draw on experiences at the Good Luck Beijing Sport Events to improve the Olympic media operation plan and provide "high-level" Games-time media services;

    -- complete construction of the media facilities on time according to the master plan for the preparations for the Beijing Olympic Games.

    The 2007 World Press Briefing for the Beijing Olympic Games is held on October 11 and 12. It is the second and last of such meeting before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Some 330 delegates from 130 international media organisations including Xinhua News Agency, the Associated Press, Reuters, Agency France-Presse, New York Times, Washington Post, the Times and CNN attended the two-day meeting.

    Delegates review the latest progress of the preparatory work of the Beijing Olympic Games and hold unilateral meetings with BOCOG relevant departments on issues of common concern.

    Earlier, two separate workshops were held on venue media services and photo services respectively. Delegates also visited venues including the National Stadium, National Aquatics Centre, National Indoor Stadium, Main Press Centre and Media Village etc.
Beijing Olympic Games, to be held from August 8 to 24, 2008, will see some 21,600 accredited media from around the world. Among them, 5,600 will be journalists and photographers from print media.