tagged w/ Foreign Correspondents Club of China
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The beating of two Japanese journalists by police in western China drew an official apology Tuesday, but Beijing also set new obstacles for news outlets wanting to report from Tiananmen Square in the latest sign of trouble for reporters covering the Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee, which last week only partially succeeded in getting China to unblock some Internet sites after journalists raised a furor, said it would look into the new rules that require reporters to make appointments to do reports at Tiananmen.
The Japanese government and the Foreign Correspondents Club of China condemned the roughing up of the Japanese newsmen who were covering an attack by alleged Muslim separatists on police in Xinjiang province.
Surrounded by Beijing's top landmarks, the square is iconic for its symbolism as the seat of the communist government. But the expanse was also the focus of pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 that were violently crushed by security forces, and officials keep a close watch on it.
A television executive said access to Tiananmen remains an issue even for TV companies that have paid tens of millions of dollars or more for the rights to broadcast the games.
Construction was not finished on a platform for broadcasters to use at the square only three days before opening day and already scheduled live broadcasts were being canceled due to the delay, said the executive, who agreed to discuss the situation only if not quoted by name to avoid offending officials during negotiations over the snag. The beating of two Japanese journalists by police in western China drew an official... more
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