"The organizing committee attaches equal importance to non-registered journalists and we are making an action plan no on how to provide news information to this group," Wang Hui, deputy-director of the BOCOG Media and Communications Department told chinadaily.com.cn. during the regular press conference on Wednesday.

Wang said both of the media centers would be opened July 8 next year and opereate around-the-clock from July 25, two weeks before the Games start.

According to Sun Weijia, executive director of BOCOG Media Operations Department, who also briefed the media, it is estimated that more than 10,000 non-registered journalists will be covering the Games and the number of accredited ones will be 5,600.

Sun denied Beijing's organizing committee determines the number of registered journalists and chooses the applicants. "It is the International Olympics Committee who makes the decision," he explained. "They decide on the quota of the registered journalists according to the media outlet's popularity, function, circulation and other criteria."

"We may have more journalists from Asia because the Olympics Games will be held in the region again, and we will give more accesses to journalists with magazines on a specific sport to cover the events they specialize in," Sun continued.

"We have to control the number of registered journalists to avoid too much pressure on the organizing committee and facilities," Sun explained. "Also we must guarantee news sources and facilities better access to registered press based on our contracts with them.

"For example, rights-holding broadcasters will have easy and free facilities provided for them at the media center because they have paid for this privilege," Sun said, going on to say Associate Press (AP), Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP) belong to this group. "Non-accredited journalists won't enjoy these rights."

The two officials assured the non-registered media would be given as many services and facilities as possible, but listed some of the priorities for accredited journalists only, namely, having news studios at venues, attending press conference after events, entering a media area for interviews and having video cameras at venues.

More than 1,000 non-registered journalists covered the 2004 Athens Olympics Games. The city opened a "second news center" two months in advance for these non-accredited journalists and some 4,000 staff served this center.

"We will learn the experience from previous Olympic host cities and try to provide what the non-registered journalists want from the Games," Wang said.