Hain Verbruggen, chairman of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, praised China's anti-piracy efforts against illegal broadcasts of the events on Thursday, calling them efficient.

In a meeting with Liu Binjie, general director of China's General Administration of Press and Publication, Verbruggen said according to the IOC's automatic monitoring system, the illegal broadcasting of Olympic-related content occurring in the country had all been stopped rapidly and efficiently.

"The anti-piracy efforts of the Chinese government set a good example for the global anti-piracy work for the Olympics," said Verbruggen.

In a bid to better protect the rights of the authorized Olympic broadcasters, the IOC implemented an Internet monitoring project during the Beijing Games. By Aug. 18, 4,066 cases of illegal broadcasting of Olympic-related content had been found around the world. Among which, 90 percent happened in the United States, especially on the video sharing website Youtube.com. The other cases happened in Europe, South America, Autralia, Vietnam and China.

According to Liu, China was now monitoring the illegal broadcasting around the clock, deleting illegal content as quickly as possible. He said the government once spent only 20-plus minutes dealing with a case.

Liu said up to now, more than 200 complaints of illegal broadcasting had been dealt with and 97 websites were punished in China.

(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2008)