The Olympics has caused the first mobile paper to be launched in China. Zhu Ling, Editor-in-Chief of China Daily, and Wang Jianzhou, Chairman of China Mobile (seen in our illustration) together launched China’s first English-Chinese mobile paper at a ceremony and press conference held in Beijing.

Jointly produced by China Daily and China Mobile, China Daily Mobile News sends English-Chinese news to users’ cell phones as multimedia messages through wireless technology.

China Daily Mobile News will allow visitors to experience China’s internationalization, technological advancements and improved English communication standards.

The China Daily newspaper group has a professional team of English-speaking staff reporters, correspondents, editors and foreign experts. And China Daily Mobile News presents the media information to users in English and Chinese.

Users of China Mobile Go Tone and M-Zone can subscribe by sending the message ‘CD’to 10658000 for RMB5 a month.

China Daily Mobile News will be sent to users twice a day, one in the morning and the other in the evening. Each multimedia package contains 10 to 20 pieces of news.
Source: China Daily

China Daily will publish the official English newspaper for the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as Village News — the official newspaper of the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic villages — according to a new agreement.

Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice-president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), and Zhu Ling, editor-in-chief of China Daily, signed the contract on behalf of their organizations.

China Daily — the only national English-language newspaper in the country — will expand The Olympian, its current weekly journal in the run-up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, by up to 48 pages daily during the Games.

Some 31,600 journalists are expected in Beijing to cover the Games.
Source: China Daily

The Chicago Tribune has published a full and well research summary of the importance of the Olympic Games.

It asks when was the last time that China was as confident, prosperous and engaged with the world as it is likely to be at the 2008 Beijing Olympics?

And the answer comes from Wang Xiaofu, a history professor at Beijing University — ‘About 1,300 years ago.’

The article sees the potential. But also sees the potential risks.

The games are hotly anticipated among ordinary Chinese who, by and large, see it as a collective triumph — a rare cause for unity in a nation divided by class, ethnicity and opportunity.

But with 20,000 foreign journalists expected to be on hand, critics at home and abroad are also getting ready to use the occasion as a chance to amplify pressure on China and, at the same time express their dismay and, perhaps, jealousy at China’s success.

Organizers face a dilemma: Clamp down too hard on protesters, and images will be beamed around the world showing foreign guests crushed by a one-party state. But let rallies grow too far on sacred political ground such as Tiananmen Square, and authorities risk emboldening wider unrest.

In particular, the government will have to rely on street cops to differentiate between peaceful protesters and security threats.

Jia Qingguo, vice dean of the Beijing University School of International Studies said, ‘A lot of tough security measures are being developed to combat terrorism, and these people run the risk of being considered terrorists.’

Read the full and well researched article by clicking on source.
Source: Chicago Tribune

BOCOG Media Operations Department Director Sun Weijia, shown here, said BOCOG will provide virtual intranet transmission services for the media covering the Beijing Olympic Games.

In addition, he said, wireless wide-band technology will also be put to use during the Olympic Games. Journalists will thus be able to send their reports to their headquarters directly from the stands without being wired up to a television. Only a journalist will wholly realize what a blessing this is.

The service will be linked with the Olympic INFO system to support download so that facts can be cross-checked before the story is filed.

In one sense BOCOG will provide the same service platform for the media as the previous Olympic Games. However, the media will be accessing services of much, much higher levels as a result of rapid development of net communication technology.

BOCOG fully studied the practice of the previous Olympic Games, and sent its staff to experience media operations during the Athens and Turin Olympic Games. And then took it all several steps further.

BOCOG has hired a considerable number of foreign specialists in media operations. About 5% of the 500 people involved in media operations are foreigners, and some 10% of the 2,000 volunteers are foreigners.

The Beijing Olympics are expected to attract 21,600 accredited media from all over the world.
Source: Beijing 2008

Whoever is in charge of the Catholic News Agency Web site should bung up a note saying ‘Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa’ on the site and then resign. What the site did was totally inexcusable. What it has done since is pretend if it closes its eyes it will go away.

It posted a story saying that Bibles would be banned at the Olympics. Which was a total and probably malicious lie. A first year cadet would doubt the story and check, check and double check.

That story said the Italian daily, La Gazzetta dello Sport, reported that organizers cited ’security reasons’ for prohibiting athletes from carrying any kind of religious symbol at Olympic facilities.

The U.S. Olympic Committee, plainly employing rather more intelligent people than the newspaper contacted the International Olympic Committee and found the story was a total nonsense, made up from the whole cloth.

USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said the federation contacted the IOC about the news reports. He said, ‘We have heard from the IOC and there will be no restriction on athletes bringing the Bible or any other religious book into the village for their personal use.’ Further, the Beijing Organizing Committee never considered any ban on Bibles.

IOC rule 51 states ‘no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.’ But that rule is in place to prevent participants from using the games as a political platform and doesn’t include any ban on Bibles.

Darryl Seibel said, ‘We fully expect that the standards established by the IOC for previous Games will be in effect for these Games.’ Those standards include providing a place in the Olympic village for athletes to worship.

Did the Catholic News Agency immediately publish a withdrawal allowing that it was wrong and that the people concerned were being dealt with. Not a bit of it. Just pretended it did not happen.

Makes you ashamed to be a journalist.