CHINA: OLYMPICS - British culture secretary Tessa Jowell tours Beijing's Olympic Stadium and urges China to ensure press freedoms for the 2008 Summer Games

British Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Tessa Jowell took a walk through Beijing's "Bird's Nest" stadium on Monday (September 4) during a six-day visit to China aimed at stepping up cooperation between the hosts of the next two Olympic Games. The twisting steel structure is one of the showpiece venues for Beijing's 2008 Games. Jowell chatted with construction officials and watched workers labouring on the latticework frame that gives the 91,000-seater stadium its nickname. The 3.13 billion yuan ($391.5 million) stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the athletics and soccer finals for the Games. Jowell said she hoped to pick up on valuable lessons learned by Beijing and pass them on to London as it steps up its preparations. "This is precisely why I am here, in order to find out what we can learn and to establish a very close link between the London Organising Committee and the Beijing Organising Committee. This has been a pretty regular string of visitors in order to establish lessons to be learnt, look what we can offer from previous experience, and to make sure that the great strength and the obvious expertise which has been applied by Beijing is translated to the London games," said Jowell. Beijing is building or refurbishing 31 venues in the city for the Olympics, which will begin on Aug. 8 2008. Games officials have said all of their venues will be completed in 2007 in time for pre-Games testing. China is also pumping an additional $40 billion to upgrade the capital's infrastructure for the Olympics. That involves the construction of new roads, railways and metro lines as well as a third terminal at Beijing airport. However, preparations have not been trouble-free with the head of construction Liu Zhihua (pron: lee-oh djur hwah), a Beijing vice-mayor, sacked in June and accused of corruption and bad morals. Media freedom is also a cause for concern. Many within the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had hoped awarding China the Games would help accelerate reform in the Communist-controlled state. Jowell said she would bring the subject up with the President of BOCOG (Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games) Liu Qi (pron: lee-oh chee) during meetings on Tuesday (September 5). She said she was encouraged by China's delcaration that it would create an open enviroment for reporting during the Games. "I understand BOCOG has made it clear that access will be given to both accredited and non-accredited journalists. And also for the period of the games, it will be possible for journalists - unaccredited journalists - to visit and interview people in other parts of China, not just in Beijing. That is a very important step forward in the commitment that the Organizing Committee gave to the IOC that hosting the games will turn China to face to the rest of the world," said Jowell. BOCOG has sought to allay fears over media freedom by saying the Games will act as a catalyst for political and social development in China. Jowell also watched primary school children demonstrate their martial arts prowess at one of the capital city's "Beijing 2008 Olympic Education Model Schools". Students at the Yangfangdian (prong: yahng fahng dee-ehn) Central Primary School file past an Olympic countdown clock every day on their way to class. Today it reminds them that there are only 704 days remaining until the big event. Yangfangdian Primary School is one of 20 in Beijing that focus on health and fitness themes as a way of preparing for the 2008 Games.

ITN Source | September 5, 2006

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