By Jacquelin Magnay
Sydney Morning Herald, August 16, 2008
http://www.smh.com.au/news/off-the-field/no-more-questions-say-chinese/2008/08/16/1218307297432.html
Beijing Olympic organisers have abandoned their regular daily press conferences following a series of heated exchanges between officials and journalists in the past four days.
Beijing spokesman Sun Weide said there would be no press conference on Saturday because the Olympics were running very smoothly.
There were scores of critical questions posed to the organisers on Friday dealing with touchy topics such as Tibet, protest parks, ticket scalpers, the hissing of Japanese competitors by Chinese audiences, the Falun Gong and doping. The questioning went on for more than an hour.
During the week the conferences were getting more intense, with Beijing organising vice president Wang Wei accusing the Western journalists of nit-picking. In turn, the journalists have accused the organisers of lying and refusing to answer questions.
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Beijing Blog: The Fake Wall of China
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Meanwhile the Australian Olympic Committee is preparing to toughen its athlete agreement to include disclosure of any pending legal action. This is in the wake of judoka Matt Celotti, 29, competing in the Beijing Olympics while facing an upcoming assault charge. Other athletes to face charges, swimmer Nick D'Arcy and cyclist Chris Jongewaard have been prevented from attending the Olympics. Celotti left the Olympic village yesterday with consent from the AOC president John Coates before the AOC disciplinary committee made any recommendation. The AOC had only discovered the charges after Celotti had competed in the 100kg class competition.
"After every Olympic Games we review the team agreements, every one of the paragraphs in that agreement is in there for a specific reason," Montgomery said.
"I know the Americans in their agreement require a disclosure of all charges, all convictions, and that may be a way that we go."
Montgomery said the current contract wording was too vague and involved athletes disclosing actions that would bring the sport into disrepute.