Following up the opening to foreign journalism during the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government may extend some of the adopted the media policies during the game for good as permanent official guidelines for foreign journalists.

The new guideline would make reporting in China freer for foreign journalists. Foreign reporters used to need a permit from the foreign affairs office and be accompanied by officials when reporting outside the city where they registered their office. With the new guideline, journalists no longer need permission from officials if they want to report in areas outside their registered city, except several sensitive areas such as Tibet.

The new media policy is mostly welcomed by foreign reporters. However, they also point out that there is still room for improvement for freer flow of information. For example, despite the fact that they are freer in geographic mobility in reporting, the subjects that journalist can report on is still strict.