BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) - Chinese researchers, speaking during the eighth Chinese "Journalists' Day", the last before the 2008 Olympics, said China is cautiously but resolutely on the road to media freedom.

    "China has been very discreet about media opening up, because it is viewed as concerning state security," said Yu Guoming, vice dean of Renmin University's School of Journalism and Communication, one of the earliest journalism schools in China.

    "Opening up brings consequences, some of which we can't predict. So the Olympics is a chance for China to experiment, to explore the consequences, and to work out ways to minimize damage, if any," he added.

    At the start of this year, China issued new media rules that granted easier access to overseas reporters and promised greater transparency.

    According to the "Regulations on Reporting Activities in China by Foreign Journalists During the Beijing Olympic Games and the Preparatory Period" that took effect on Jan. 1, foreign journalists would not necessarily have to be accompanied or assisted by a Chinese official when they report in China. Also, they no longer need to apply to provincial foreign affairs offices for permission to report in all Chinese provinces.

    In April, China adopted regulations on "open government information" that promised public access to information on a range of issues including government spending, drug and food safety, and land seizures. These new regulations were intended to curb the abuse of power.

    The media decree takes effect in May 2008, three months before the Olympics.

    In August, China adopted the Emergency Response Law, which requires officials to provide accurate, timely information on emergencies.

    Commentators called these moves "great leaps" from the past, when it was taboo to report on death tolls in natural disasters. For example, the official death toll from the Tangshan earthquake on July 28, 1976, in northern Hebei Province, was not released for three years. More than 240,000 people died in that disaster.

    "The rules, including dropping the restrictions, suits international norms and makes possible a complete and balanced picture of China," said Jaime FlorCruz, CNN Beijing Bureau chief.

    Zhao Qizheng, an outspoken former director of the Information Office of the State Council, said that "Chinese officials have started to realize that speaking to the media is speaking to the public."

    Apart from legal preparations, local governments are also taking "encouraging" steps in reducing media restrictions.

    Starting this month, the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, which straddles the Yangtze River, instituted regular monthly press conferences for domestic and foreign media. Local officials pledged not to restrict media reporting by "influencing, interfering or handing out pre-meditated press releases."

    Chongqing is the second provincial-level municipality to adopt this form of press conference. China's business hub, Shanghai, introduced a similar scheme in June 2003.

    Media freedom: a stopgap?

    Despite China's progress toward greater media freedom, there has been some concern that any relaxation would be temporary.

    "I have heard such worries, but the trend of opening up is irreversible," Prof. Yu said.

    "The revision of the old rules is part of China's commitment to the IOC (International Olympic Committee), but it's also a commitment to the Chinese people and media," he said.

    "There might be setbacks," he said, but China would make steady progress toward greater openness.

    The view that negative reports would have negative results was still held in some quarters, but from a sociological point of view, more information would bring understanding, trust, and even intimacy, while the absence of information would mean the opposite, Yu argued.

    "Information black-outs have been blamed for making China seem like a distant and mysterious state, and that just can't happen in the future," he said.

    The planned stock market listings of Chinese media groups, mostly state-owned, would also mean more media freedom, Yu added.

    Zhan Jiang, director of the School of Journalism and Communication, China Youth University For Political Sciences, said that "research has shown that international factors accounted for increasing China's GDP growth, and blocking information flows is at odds with the degree of openness in the Chinese economy and logistics."

    "Relaxed rules help institutionalize transparency and accountability. We hope the relaxation will persist beyond the Olympics, and we look forward to even more relaxation in the near future," FlorCruz said.