Olympic Sailing Competition Forum started from March 10th. Officers of 2008 Olympic Sailing Competition Publicity Department came to Forum to communicate with citizens on March 18th. Summary of the chat as follows:

    Q: Can you introduce the Media Center? A: Media Center located in the south of the Olympic Center with great vision for the journalists to get instant news about the competition. There are media room, press hall, media interview room and public service district etc. in it.

    Q: How many media will come during competition? A: 21600 journalists have registered for 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and over 10000 unregistered media journalists will take part in the Olympic coverage.

    Q: What is BOB? A: Beijing Olympic Broadcasting.

    Q: What is the difference between registered journalists and unregistered media journalists? A: Registered journalists have certificate of registration to benefit certain service items. Unregistered media journalists can also cover Olympic news but can not get into the venue and benefit service items.

    Q: Are the citizens allowed to visit the media center? A: Citizens are not allowed to visit the media center at the game time.

    Q: Will there be any press conference this year? A: SSCQD will promote enhance the publicity and more press conferences will be held to let the world know better about Qingdao and 2008 Olympic Sailing Competition.

    Q: Do the Qingdao local media benefit any preferential policies during the Olympic Sailing Competition? A: As the host city for the 2008 Olympic Sailing Competition, Qingdao media can have certain more registration quota. But at the game time all the registered media benefit the same service items.

    Q: Do the journalists have fixed time to interview the athletes? A: Registered media can interview the athletes in mixing zone right after the race finished. If there were any further interview request, the media can ask for reserve interview with help and arrangement of the committee. Media can also interview the athletes at the press conference after awarding ceremony.

    Q: Will the media influence the competition at the game time because when they are all at sea? A: The competition has invisible tracks. Different boats have their own limited track which will not influence the competition.

    Q: Will there be simultaneous interpretation in English and Chinese? A: There will be simultaneous interpretation in English and Chinese during the press conferences.

    Q: What volunteers does publicity department require？ A: Volunteers are elected through Olympic volunteer election and are given general training, professional training, venue training and relevant position training to serve for publicity and media operating.