Sports

China relaxes newspaper sales for Olympics

by mtippett | July 11, 2008 at 09:58 am

292 views | 5 Recommendations | 1 comment

I wonder if this is something that can be done temporarily or if it will have long standing effects?

Normally, only a handful of overseas and Hong Kong publications are available for purchase in China, and then only at international airports and in luxury hotels.

But the state-run organisation that has a monopoly on newspaper imports said that a limited list of about 30 publications would be sold at kiosks situated in areas serving athletes and visiting journalists.

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mchawk

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:54 on July 13th, 2008

mtippett, I like this story. It's good stuff.

I'll be interesting to see if western newspapers self-censor, knowing that they'll be available on Beijing news-stands. How willing will they be to risk insulting their host?

It'll also be interesting to track how fast this spirit of openness leaves once the games are over. After the Olympic flames goes out, are we being over-optimistic to think that you'll still be able to get the Times in downtown Beijing?