By Steve Parry (former Reuters Sports Editor)
China’s media began preparing for the challenge of the 2008 Olympics when they took part in two Reuters Foundation workshops in Beijing in April.
The first of the five-day Olympic reporting workshops involved 14 sports and news journalists from Xinhua news agency. It followed the pattern of the Olympic media outreach programme organised by the Foundation in conjunction with the IOC during the 2004 Athens Games.
The second, organised with Tsinghua University, attracted 18 sports and news journalists from television, radio, newspapers and new media.
It was formally opened by Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London 2012 Olympic organising committee, who told participants of his unique Games perspective as double gold medallist, journalist and broadcaster. He was in Beijing for meetings with the 2008 Games organisers.
The first workshop focused on Xinhua’s role as the IOC-appointed Olympic host news agency responsible for covering the Games for the numerous Chinese media organisations unable to obtain accreditation.
But with many foreign journalists likely to arrive in Beijing with only a limited grasp of China’s political, economic and cultural context, Xinhua could also help their media guests understand some of the country’s complexities.
One of the key issues facing the Olympics is the extent to which China’s authorities will allow the world’s media the same degree of reporting freedom that they enjoy at other Games.
To ensure the success of the Games, the Beijing organisers have pledged that normal Olympic reporting practices will prevail where there is any conflict with Chinese media regulations.
In this context, one of the aims of the workshops was to explore a more direct approach to sports journalism in order to give participants a glimpse of the way the world’s media cover the Olympics.
Under the guidance of former Sports Editor Steve Parry and Deputy Sports Editor Jon Bramley, the journalists were given a general grounding in the history and politics of the Games, and undertook various Olympic sports writing exercises.
A full day was devoted to the coverage of doping, with emphasis on the saga of Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou at the Athens Games. One participant noted without obvious irony: “Actually, today’s content was quite interesting.”
But both workshops seemed to hit a road block when journalists were asked to seek interviews with senior sports officials as part of a feature exercise on China’s 2008 Olympic medal prospects.
Both groups insisted that this was impossible under normal Chinese media practice – until a couple of reporters in each group bit the bullet and obtained interviews with senior sports personnel who provided useful quotes.
The point seemed to be understood by participants: if they maintain their normal low key approach during the Games, they risk being trampled underfoot by their less inhibited western colleagues.
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