Cars drive past the Olympic rings on the airport highway in Beijing yesterday. Olympic lanes are being marked on the airport highway, and roads leading to Olympic venues, and will come into use on July 20, from which date only cars with official Olympic passes are allowed to use them. - AP
BEIJING (AP)
With one month to go before the Olympics open on August 8, China's work is hardly complete.
The government needs to meet its pledge to deliver clean air in one of the world's most polluted cities, and must finish two new subway lines and a railway line. The 31 venues in Beijing are ready, and most have been for months.
Reporters
But the most difficult promise to keep for the authoritarian government may be allowing reporters - as many as 30,000 are expected - to work freely, as they have in other Olympics. This was a pledge China made seven years ago in winning the bid.
Television networks like America's NBC - it has paid billions for Olympic broadcast rights - and the International Olympic Committee have been at odds for months with Chinese security officials, fighting to clarify the rights of satellite trucks to move freely around the city of 17 million.
Access to spots like Tiananmen Square - who will be allowed in, when and under what conditions - is also a battleground with Chinese officials fearing the iconic sites could be used as a TV backdrop by pro-Tibet protesters or the spiritual movement Falun Gong.
Bureaucratic delays
This issue should come to a head again this week when broadcasters, the IOC and games organisers meet tomorrow in Beijing. This is a follow-up to a contentious meeting in late May when IOC and broadcast officials criticised Beijing organisers for bureaucratic delays that could compromise TV coverage.
"I think this free reporting will be a problem for everyone," said Johannes Hano, East Asia bureau chief of Germany's ZDF television. "They will stop you even if you have permission. It will be the biggest problem. There is no freedom of press as they promised."
One of two rights-holding broadcasters for the games in Germany, Hano said ZDF was sending a "sharp protest letter" to IOC president Jacques Rogge, Beijing organisers, the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the European Broadcasting Union.
"We are worried this situation will continue and freedom of journalists will not be guaranteed here," Hano said.
Beijing Olympic organising officials have repeatedly promised that reporters will be free to do their jobs and cover the Olympics as they have at previous games.
Foreign press
"During the Olympic Games we will help the media with their interview requests," organising committee spokesman Sun Weide said yesterday.
China is on record promising unrestricted coverage. In a 273-page guide to coverage for the foreign press, the introduction says: "The Chinese government will honour its commitments in the bid process ... to provide quality and convenient services to the media in accordance with international practice and the successful experience from previous games, so as to satisfy the demands of the media covering the Olympic Games in China."
Rocked by protests on international legs of the Olympic torch relay following the outbreak of deadly rioting on March 14 in Tibet, China has stepped up security everywhere and tightened visa rules. Even holders of Olympic tickets are finding this is no guarantee of a visa to stay in China.
Chinese officials say terrorism is the biggest threat to the games, although human-rights groups say the threat is being used to dampen internal dissent.
'Free Tibet'
The Free Tibet Campaign has asked British athletes to make a "T for Tibet" sign during the games. It is also making 'Free Tibet' T-shirts available. Similar campaigns are under way in other countries.
US President George W. Bush, on Sunday, said he will attend the opening ceremony. Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is also coming. However, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has tied his attendance to progress in talks between Chinese officials and representatives of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader.
China says it will deploy about 100,000 anti-terrorism police during the games, with some of the city's 500,000 Olympic volunteers also serving security roles. Police have already begun bag checks in Beijing's subway stations, leading some to dub these the 'Killjoy Games'.
A blunt reminder of security is visible just 800 metres (a half mile) from the Bird's Nest National Stadium, where two ground-to-air missiles are pointed skyward.
Beijing's gray-tinted air is expected to begin clearing this month as strict, two-month pollution controls come into force on July 20. Factories and heavy industry in several provinces around Beijing will be shuttered, and up to two million vehicles will be taken off the roads, using an even-odd plate registration system.
Algae bloom
In Qingdao, the venue for sailing, 350 miles from Beijing, thousands are working to clear an algae bloom that covers one third of the sea area where the competition begins on August 9. The bloom may be caused by pollution, a persistent problem along the highly industrialised east coast of China.
Rogge, the IOC president has said some outdoor endurance events lasting more than an hour will be postponed if the air quality is poor. He has yet to comment publicly on the water quality in Qingdao.
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