China's Olympic media hotel offers bribes for coverage

The hotel hosting the official non-accredited media centre for August's Beijing Olympics is offering cash to reporters in return for positive media coverage.

The Gehua New Century Hotel, which describes itself as "China's first five-star hotel with a media-cultural theme", has promised journalists up to 1000 yuan ($145) for articles about it.

It is common practice in China for local media to be paid "travel expenses" of 200 to 300 yuan for attending news conferences - in effect an incentive given that most taxi journeys in the city cost less than 50 yuan.

Hush money has also been paid to reporters by coal mine owners and, in some cases, colluding local officials to cover up fatal accidents.

The handout in Chinese on headed notepaper given by staff to the media after a Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) news conference at the hotel on Friday promised 100 yuan for a mention of the Gehua in reports.

Once verified by the public relations department, the document said, media can claim 500 yuan for a "positive" article on the hotel of 100 to 500 words in length and 1000 yuan for an article of between 500 and 1000 words.

"We want to extend our reputation through the opportunity of the Olympics, it is necessary to promote our brand," PR manager Zhao Xiaoda told Reuters by telephone today.

"I understand it is different from international practice. It was a decision of the PR department not the hotel."

Formerly known as the Huabei Hotel, the 353-room facility was the home of the BOCOG media department before being extensively refurbished and reopened recently as the Beijing International Media Centre (BIMC).

It hosted its first BOCOG news conference last week and will be the workplace of up to 10,000 media who are expected to arrive in Beijing to cover the Aug 8-24 Games without official International Olympic Committee (IOC) accreditation.

The IOC has accredited 21,500 media for the Games.

LNK
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