Some headway on Olympics TV coverage after meeting

"There has been some progress in the last two weeks, I can tell you that," IOC member Kevan Gosper told The Associated Press on Monday following a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, with IOC president Jacques Rogge. "But I can't say we are there yet."

In winning the games seven years ago, China promised the IOC that media would be free to report as they have at other games. With 7 1/2 weeks to go before the opening Aug. 8, TV broadcasters are battling China's communist government and security officials for permission to move reporters, equipment and satellite trucks freely around the sprawling city.

"I would not describe this as being at a crisis level," Gosper added in the telephone interview. "Obviously, there are anxieties. But I don't believe we are at a point where there will be a breakdown or threat (to the games)."

Gosper is chairman of the IOC press commission, and Rogge heads the radio and television commission. Also attending Monday's talks was Hein Verbruggen, who leads the IOC coordination commission for the Beijing Games.

The games are supposed to showcase China as the rising power of the 21st century, and anything less than a perfect presentation will be seen as a failure by top officials and its 1.3 billion citizens.

At a stormy meeting on May 29 in Beijing with TV executives--including U.S. rights holder NBC--IOC officials and top Chinese leadership, numerous disputes surfaced. At that time broadcasters were told it was unlikely they would be allowed to transmit live from venues such as Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

"We've been emphasizing to BOCOG (the acronym for the Beijing organizing committee) that the broadcasters must have freedom to move their vehicles around Beijing, and there must be absolutely no interference with the signals," said Gosper, who did not indicate the Tiananmen issue had been resolved. "They (journalists) will have the ability of filing live without any censorship."

Gosper said he had been speaking regularly with Manolo Romero, the general manager of Beijing Olympic Broadcasting. This IOC subsidiary coordinates and provides technical services for the television networks with rights to broadcast the Olympics, such as NBC, which is owned by General Electric Co.

Decisions about the games have always been made at the highest level of the government and Communist Party. In March, however, overall responsibility for the event was handed to the country's vice president Xi Jinping, considered the leading contender to succeed President Hu Jintao in 2013.