Tiananmen Square -- open or closed?

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It’s not an official Olympic venue, but broadcasters and the International Olympic Committee want China to open up Tiananmen Square for more hours of live television coverage. The square is best known to foreigners as the site of a bloody crackdown on China’s democracy movement in 1989.

Last week, broadcasters, IOC officials and the Chinese government met face to face for the last time before the start of the Games. China agreed to allow live broadcasts via satellite trucks from Tiananmen Square from 6 to 10 a.m. and 9 to 11 p.m. The hundreds of trucks that will be in town from around the world also are supposed to have freedom to roam elsewhere in the city.

But Chinese officials want broadcasters to seek permission before going live -- and have indicated that some locations will remain off-limits. So doubts remain.

‘We have the words, it’s in writing as well. We will just have to wait and see,� Tomoyo Igaya, senior program director for Japan’s NHK Sports, told the Associated Press. “People say yes, yes, yes, but will people on site be saying no, no, no?�

China has viewed the Beijing Games as a way to showcase itself to the world. But some broadcasters wonder how far press freedom will extend in a country where political activism is largely prohibited.

‘Chinese officials are aware that, for a lot of the world, Tiananmen Square brings back memories of June 4 [1989] and what in the West is sometimes known as the Tiananmen Massacre — or the Tiananmen incident,� Susan Brownell, a visiting China expert from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, told AP.

--Greg Johnson