Chinese Olympic officials defended on Tuesday the collection of information on journalists, saying such databases would be used to help the media at Beijing 2008, not to create blacklists or hinder reporting.
The comments came a day after state media said authorities were building a database of information on about 30,000 foreign journalists accredited to cover Beijing 2008, news China’s Foreign Ministry later denied.
The information would be shared with potential interviewees, to keep them from being tricked by “fake reporters”, the report in the state-run China Daily quoted the head of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) as saying.
Of course, if you’re a Western internet multinational (say Yahoo!), you’re hardly alone in selling your soul for the corporate dollar in the soon-to-be world’s largest net market.