During the Olympics China relaxed regulation of media freedom on foreign media. Human Rights Watch has said that these relaxed regulations should also be extended without limit to Chinese journalists.

The temporary regulations were adopted in January 2007 as part of the Chinese government’s commitments to improve its human rights record, a key aspect of its 2001 bid to win the 2008 Summer Olympics.

There has been suggestion within the Chinese government that these regulation will indeed be extended, Information Minister Cai Wu said, “ If practice shows that the regulation will help the international community to know China better, then it is a good policy in accordance with the country’s reforms and opening up”.

Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch has said that “keeping the regulations in effect and extending them to Chinese journalists would be one of the most important legacies of the Games”. Hopefully with this extension of media freedom other human rights issues in China will also be resolved with China’s growing yearning for greater international acceptance.