Reuters Olympics team is 200 strong

Reuters has 24 correspondents stationed in China with a much larger local support team working on the ground.

“It’s definitely one of the biggest foreign media presences in China,” editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said on the eve of his departure for Beijing.

For Reuters, “the biggest problem and challenge is to find reporters who understand both the language, culture and Chinese society,” he told China’s Xinhua News Agency.

Schlesinger, formerly a correspondent in Beijing, was speaking in a telephone interview with Xinhua on the eve of his departure for a 15-day stay. He will be the guest of Li Congjun, president of Xinhua, at Friday’s opening ceremony.

“I’ll meet Xinhua’s new president during my stay in Beijing for constructive dialogue, in addition to meeting officials from the Information Office of the State Council as well as other friends,” Xinhua quoted him as saying. 

Schlesinger said Reuters would offer “fair, unbiased, responsible coverage” of the Games, Xinhua said. Besides covering sports it would also report on the political, social and economic scene in China.

“We are interested in how China prepares for the Games, the facilities, how the city works during the Games, traffic and pollution, whether the stadiums are full, how athletes are made to feel welcome, media and visa regulations in the run-up to the Games, etc,” Schlesinger said. ■