Dear Colleagues,

The IFJ in co-operation with the media and sports campaign Play The Game today launched a web-site for journalists and media staff planning to visit China around the time of the Olympic Games in August. The site provides information and background that all journalists and media staff will find useful -- it also gives details of a special 24-hour hotline the IFJ is establishing during the Games themselves to provide emergency assistance to journalists who find themselves facing pressure from the authorities because of their work. 

The IFJ and Play The Game are also sending two people to be on the spot during this period to monitor the situation for media and to liaise with the authorities and other groups, like the Foreign Correspondents Club of Beijing, during the Games.

More than 40,000 foreign journalists and media staff will be in China during this period, most of them covering sporting events, but thousands will also be there to report on the wider China story -- its development, its human rights record, its response to recent natural disasters and internal troubles.

Please circulate details of this site to all of your members that may be travelling to Beijing and to all media covering the games. The site will be updated on a daily basis and contains guidelines, tips and advice for working in China. There are links to every useful organisation -- official and otherwise -- that journalists may need to contact.

Also on the site is the full report of the recent IFJ mission to China with its frank assessment of the situation for journalists and media staff.

The site can be found at http://www.playthegameforopenjournalism.org/

The hotline number is: +32  475 76 13 92 

Journalists can also contact other IFJ staff with questions:

IFJ Asia-Pacific Office (Sydney, Australia): +61 29 333 0999; ifj@ifj-asia.org

IFJ Human Rights and Information Officer Rachel Cohen in Brussels: +32 2 235 2207; rachel.cohen@ifj.org

IFJ General Secretary Aidan White: +32 478 258 669; aidan.white@ifj.org

IFJ Beijing Media Rights Monitor Serenade Woo: +86 150 108 48490

The IFJ will do its best to ensure that journalists are able to work freely and independently while covering the Olympics. It will also monitor press freedom violations. We need your input and help so please contact us with any violations, problems or questions.

Best regards,

Aidan White