China's quake response shows media progress: IOC

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's handling of a deadly earthquake and its openness with the foreign press show how attitudes towards the media have changed in the country, sports officials said on Thursday.

Foreign media have mostly been allowed to report freely on the aftermath of the May 12 quake that killed more than 51,000 people.

"The reporting has been very wide by national and international media, I'd be surprised if it changed although of course I don't want to make a good thing out of a tragedy," Olympic press chief Kevan Gosper told the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) congress in Beijing.

Beijing has vowed unprecedented media freedom in the Communist-ruled country during the Beijing Olympic Games in August, though that pledge will not apply to its own carefully controlled state press, radio and television.

China was widely criticized in the foreign media over its crackdown in Tibet in March, and the international leg of the Olympic torch was dogged by anti-China protests.

The criticism angered Chinese authorities and provoked pro-China rallies at home and abroad, as well as calls for boycotts of Western companies.

"There was a noticeable level of aggression towards this country from the international media, particularly during the torch relay in Europe and North America," Gosper said.

"In the last few days there has been a remarkable change of mood after the extraordinary disaster. I would expect this to be sustained through the Games."

But the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, while welcoming the generally open reporting environment around the quake, said there had still been some harassment of reporters.

"Some correspondents have reported cases of interference while they were trying to reach, or conduct interviews in, quake-affected areas," it said in a statement.

"Two foreign journalists said they were roughed up. Two correspondents reported authorities seized or tried to seize their video, or deleted photographs," the group added.

Gosper reiterated his belief that Beijing would deliver on its commitment to allow media similar freedom to report as they have enjoyed at previous Games, particularly in the area of access to uncensored Internet.

Earlier this month, China's Minister of Technology Wan Gang said he could not guarantee the government would not censor the Internet during the Games.

AIPS president Gianna Merlo also said the experience of organizing the congress in the Chinese capital had made him more optimistic about the reporting situation in China.

The Italian said he thought the coverage of the tragedy in Sichuan would prove to be a watershed in relations between China and foreign media.

"The earthquake has changed everything and put them in the face of a new reality," Merlo told reporters. "It will be difficult to go back."

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Alex Richardson)