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Associated Press 16y

China building database with profiles of foreign reporters working at next year's Olympics

BEIJING -- The Chinese government has created profiles on
thousands of foreign journalists coming to report on next summer's
Beijing Olympics and is gathering information on thousands more to
put into a database, a top official said in comments published
Monday.

The profiles appeared to undermine promises made by Chinese
leaders in 2001, when they were bidding for the Games, that the
event would lead to greater media freedoms.

The database with information on the 28,000 foreign journalists
expected for the Olympics would be a reference for interview
subjects, designed to protect them from being tricked or
blackmailed by "fake reporters," Liu Binjie, minister of the
General Administration of Press and Publication, was quoted as
saying in the state-run China Daily newspaper.

"Disguising as reporters to threaten and intimidate others to
collect money is cheating and very dangerous to society," Liu told
the English-language paper.

In China, people sometimes pose as reporters to extort money
from corrupt officials or demand payment for false promises of
favorable news coverage. A nationwide campaign launched in August
netted 150 fake reporters and 300 unregistered publications, China
Daily said.

Bob Dietz, Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect
Journalists, said fake reporters looking for kickbacks in China is
a legitimate concern, but that it was an internal problem.

"Applying that to foreign journalists seems to me widely off
the mark. This is an unnecessary overreaction," he said.

Information was already compiled on the 8,000 foreign reporters
who will be allowed to work inside Olympic venues, while
authorities were building a database on another 20,000 foreign
reporters who will be permitted to work in China during the event,
China Daily said.

Only reporters with Olympic media accreditation can work inside
the venues.

It was not known how information was being collected for the
profiles, what they contained or who would be given access to them.

Despite China's stated intentions of using the Olympics as a
force for promoting liberalization in society, the reporter
database is the latest in a series of heavy-handed tactics aimed at
stifling dissent and criticism in the run-up to the event.

China's intelligence services have been gathering information on
foreign activist groups, aiming to head off protests and other
political acts. Last week, U.S.-based monitoring group China Aid
Association said the Ministry of Public Security issued a secret
order banning those who fall into broad categories such as
"antagonistic elements" and "members of illegal organizations."

Also on the list were "media employees who can harm the Olympic
Games," the group said.

China closely tracks foreign reporters who work in the country,
though they were promised "complete freedom to report" when
Beijing was bidding for the games.

A survey of 163 China-based foreign reporters this year found
that 40 percent reported experiencing some form of interference in
their work since Jan. 1, including surveillance, detention,
reprimands and intimidation of sources.

Authorities detained journalists who covered a rare protest in
Beijing in August -- staged by free-press advocacy group Reporters
Without Borders, which was accusing China of failing to deliver on
its promised expansion of media freedoms.

Liu was in a meeting Monday afternoon and was not available for
comment, his secretary said. Liu's office did not respond to a
faxed interview request from The Associated Press seeking further
information.

A man surnamed Wang, the information office director of the
market regulation department at GAPP, confirmed that Liu discussed
the database with China Daily when asked how authorities would
identify fake reporters. But Wang said he was not at the interview
and did not know specifics.

Li Zhanjun, director of the Beijing Olympics media center, said
he was busy and unable to discuss the China Daily report. Another
Olympics media officer, Shao Ziqiang, said he had not heard about
the database.

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Associated Press Writer Carley Petesch in New York contributed
to this report.

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