Tibet to Open NPC, CPPCC Sessions to Foreign Media

Four media organizations from China's neighboring countries will be invited for the first time to cover the annual session of the National People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region to be held on January 14.

The plenary session of the Regional Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference to be held on January 12 will also be open to foreign press.

According to a press conference held by the two sessions on Saturday, the invitations to the four foreign media organizations were an effort to "let the world know better about a real and new Tibet through an objective visual angle."

Names of the foreign media organizations were not specified.

Tibet authorities also revealed that they will invite diplomats with Nepal's consulate general to Lhasa, capital of the autonomous region, to attend the opening and closing ceremonies of the sessions.

There will be nearly 200 journalists from 16 media organizations home and abroad to report the annual sessions this year, the press conference told.

At the two sessions, report on the work of the regional government will be discussed, as well as local budgets and plans for social and economic developments.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2009)