China has so far failed to guarantee full media freedom for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. A survey indicated that the harassment of foreign reporters is still very common.

However, according to the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, the situation is much better than January this year, when the government loosened reporting regulations.

Of the 163 respondents of the survey, about 95 percent agreed the reporting conditions in China did not meet the international standard, while 43 percent said China's reporting environment is improving since the government moved to relax the restrictions for foreign press before the Olympics.

They survey collected responses from reporters who work in China from over 24 countries. Most of the respondents were based in Beijing, while the rest worked in Shanghai and four other big cities in China.

Chinese government now allows foreign reporters to travel and report more freely in most of the country as a preparation for the Games next year, but the relaxed regulations will expire on Oct. 17, 2008.

Foreign journalists had to have government permission to report outside main cities – usually Beijing and Shanghai, but under the new rules, they only need the agreement from the interviewee to report.