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Olympic organisers deny hiding from media

BEIJING: Olympic officials denied Sunday they were hiding from the international media after they cancelled two scheduled press conferences. Press conferences hosted jointly by the Beijing Olympic organising committee (BOCOG) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that have been held daily since the Games opened were abruptly called off on Saturday and Sunday.

The cancellations followed aggressive questioning from the international media on issues human rights, Tibet, religious freedom and other matters judged sensitive by China's communist rulers. BOCOG spokesman Sun Weide denied the organising committee was unwilling to field media questions and said that press conferences would resume on Monday. “We are always ready to take questions and we are always available at the news desk (in the Olympic media centre) or by telephone,” he told AFP.

Sun said that when the Games were running so smoothly, daily press briefings did not need to be held. Officials said the Sunday session was dropped because it clashed with the last day of the swimming finals in which Michael Phelps clinched a games record eighth gold medal, but gave no specific reason for Saturday's cancellation. The briefings have offered a unique occasion for foreign and Chinese journalists to question BOCOG and IOC on an unlimited range of issues, and they became increasingly tense affairs during the first half of the Games.

But IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said the cancellations were unrelated to aggressive questioning by the foreign media. “That's no problem from where I am sitting,” said Davies, who normally hosts the press conferences along with Wang Wei, a BOCOG vice president. “That's part of the job and the questions are tough at all Games, just their content is different.” afp

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