Database on foreign reporters planned
The mainland will share information about thousands of foreign reporters covering the Beijing Olympics with potential interviewees, the nation's top press official said yesterday.
Authorities were building a database of overseas reporters' profiles for the reference of interviewees, China Daily quoted Liu Binjie , minister of the General Administration of Press and Publication, as saying.
The database would cover 8,000 foreign journalists accredited to report from inside Olympic Games venues, and 20,000 others allowed to report outside the venues, Mr Liu said. The report did not elaborate on any details, but it linked the database to a crackdown on fake reporters who extort interviewees.
Melinda Liu, president of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China, said she and her colleagues on the club board would need more information to determine whether this was a new barrier for foreign correspondents operating on the mainland.
