The Beijing Olympic Games, despite some initial hiccups and some unforeseen distractions, is headed for major success by all accounts, said the editor-in-chief and director of Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), Tarun Basu, in an interview with Xinhua on Monday.

The upcoming Games will be a proud moment not just for China and the Chinese, but for the people of an emerging Asia as a whole, said Basu before departing for Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games at the invitation of Xinhua News Agency.

The Games will announce China's arrival in the front ranks of nations on the world stage, he added, while reserving high praise for Beijing's efforts to host a successful global sports event.

"Beijing, by what one has read so far, is making a commendable effort to accommodate the concerns of the global community in ensuring a problem-free and harmonious Games," the IANS director said.

Regarding Sino-Indian relations, Basu said: "India and China need to intensify media exchanges, not just at the executive level, but at the grassroots. More and more young journalists from both countries should visit each other, work in each others' offices and see for themselves how things are in both countries. They should serve as a window for their countrymen and women into each other's societies and cultures."

"Xinhua and IANS have already shown the way with news exchanges and professional collaboration... There is huge potential to work together on professional projects, and joint news gathering and disseminating operations," he said.

With regard to what role that media should play when covering the Olympics, Basu said: "Media establishments, irrespective of the country they belong to, should promote the ideals of the Olympic movement during the Games."

"They should report objectively, avoid moralizing or muck-raking, resist the temptation of seeing things from their own cultural or social prism or political standpoint, and concentrate on the game," he added.

Berlin visitors Peter Voigt and Simone Teuber have just arrived in Beijing, and checked into a siheyuan, a traditional courtyard home, in the city's Shichahai area.

Foreigners visit Beijing's  traditional courtyard home, in the city's Shichahai area.

(Xinhua News Agency August 5, 2008)