Beat the Press

Today is Journalists Day in China -which must be sort of like Fox Day at a hunt club.

China marked the occasion with the 16th annual China Journalism Awards and the 7th Changjiang Taofen Awards, at which Communist party officials doled out honors and delivered speeches replete with such gems as, "All news people should devote themselves to reflect the will of the Party and aspirations of the people."

China, of course, is considered among the worst in the world for journalistic freedoms. This Journalists Day, 29 Chinese journalists will be spending it in jail for doing what we in the West would consider to be their job.

But this year is slightly different, because China pledged to relax its restrictions on foreign journalists reporting in China as a condition to hosting the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. In theory, they no longer need to apply for permission to report in all Chinese provinces, and can move about unaccompanied by a Chinese official. The regulations were enacted on January 1, 2007 and will expire on October 17, 2008

The problem is that no one is doing a terribly good job following the new regulations, with foreign journalists still repeatedly being threatened, harassed, and punished for what they publish.

Organizations including Reporters Without Borders, Committee to Protect Journalists, and Human Rights Watch are looking to the International Olympic Committee to speak out on abuses of media freedom and China's failure to meet one of the I.O.C.'s major demands. But such a statement has yet to emerge.

The I.O.C. has been vocal on the issue of Beijing's air quality, but not so with the issue of media freedom - and will have a major problem on its hands should the 20,000 journalists that descend on the city next summer not find a much more cordial welcome.

Liz Gunnison