In what has turned into a high stakes media chess match, the Chinese government has apparently given the go ahead to Western media outlets to do Olympic broadcasts from Tiananmen Square. The site is controversial both because it was the site of the infamous pro-democracy protests in 1989, but also because protesters continue to flock to the area to protest current issues — which the Chinese government might just as soon keep under wraps.

Late last month, the world’s TV rights-holders held two days of closed-door meetings with Chinese Olympic officials in Beijing. Moore said the Chinese were “immovable and inflexible” on the first day. But he said after the broadcasters passionately voiced their concerns, the Chinese had a change of heart.

“As rights-holders, we impressed upon the organizing committee that we’re not there necessarily to embarrass anybody, but we felt very strongly, whatever happens at the Games, we have not only rights that we’ve paid for, but a right as journalists to cover that,” said Moore.

The article says this is just one more issue in an ongoing battle between Western journalists and the Chinese government. In early 2007, the Chinese government relaxed restrictions on journalists, but then banned foreign reporters from the riots in Tibet. In March of 2008, the state run China Daily newspaper reported the Chinese government had created profiles on thousands of foreign journalists.

Check out this recent blog entryby BBC writer James Reynolds, who describes the tight security during a torch relay event in Xinjiang.

The authorities here didn’t want reporters wandering away off on their own during the relay. So, just after dawn, we were all driven to the square outside the Idkah mosque for the start of the relay (to help identify us, local officials gave each of us two red stickers and politely told us to put one on our chests and one on our backs.)

Once the opening ceremony was over, we were driven straight to another square to get ready for the closing ceremony (as we drove we saw that most - if not all - shops and businesses were shuttered. There were no cars on the road. Local people had been told to stay indoors.)

Some of these links are from Chinasportstoday.com