Regular press briefings cancelled at Beijing Olympics

Beijing, Aug.16 (ANI): Organizers of the Beijing Olympic have decided to cancel their regular daily press conferences following a series of heated exchanges between officials and journalists in the past four days.

Beijing spokesman Sun Weide said there would be no press conference on Saturday because the Olympics were running very smoothly.

There were scores of critical questions posed to the organisers on Friday dealing with touchy topics such as Tibet, protest parks, ticket scalpers, the hissing of Japanese competitors by Chinese audiences, the Falun Gong and doping. The questioning went on for more than an hour.

During the week the conferences were getting more intense, with Beijing organising vice president Wang Wei accusing the Western journalists of nit-picking. In turn, the journalists have accused the organisers of lying and refusing to answer questions. (ANI)