Although Olympic organisers for the Beijing Games are building a database on foreign journalists, the Chinese government is denying plans to suppress media.

The purpose of the database is to help foreign journalists working at the Olympics, set for August 8 – 24, said Li Zhanjun, director of the Beijing Olympic organising committee's media centre, according to an AFP article posted online by The Australian Wednesday.

“The major purpose is to provide better service to the media, it is not to monitor the press or threaten anyone,” Zhanjun said, according to AFP. “There is no blacklist and there is no monitoring. Our policy concerning the coverage of the Olympic Games is really very open and very transparent.”

A spokesman for China's media watchdog, the General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP), said reports that it is independently creating profiles on about 30,000 journalists expected to cover the games are not true.

Although the official from the GAPP's information office told AFP that “no such thing is being considered,” the official did say the GAPP intends to give the public access to information on the organising committee's database so they can verify journalists seeking interviews.

In previous reports, GAPP minister Liu Binjie said making the database public is a move to prevent fraudulent reporters from extorting money by threatening to publish harmful stories about people. On Monday, The China Daily newspaper quoted Liu as saying that these reporters, “especially those representing overseas-registered media, harm society and deserve severe punishment,” according AFP.

“Some reporters like to cover sport and some others are very interested in politics ... so we have some kind of data and information concerning that,” Zhanjun told AFP.

When it bid to host the 2008 Olympics, China promised to introduce media freedom, and relaxed its rules on foreign journalists in January, although restrictions on Chinese journalists remain enforced. The International Olympic Committee “has praised China for fulfilling its commitment on unfettered media reporting for the Games,” AFP reported.