Olympic athletes may be allowed to blog for the first time at the 2008 Beijing Games.

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Under long-standing Olympic rules, athletes, coaches and other team officials are barred from functioning as a "journalist or in any other media capacity" during the games. This is meant to protect the rights of the accredited media.

The IOC athletes' commission discussed the matter with the policy-making executive board Wednesday and expressed support "in principle" for blogging, but said more time was needed to study the issue.

"How do you find the best balance between the principle of fair speech and turning the athletes' village into a Big Brother scenario?" IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. "We want to avoid a free-for-all situation."

Davies said some athletes may have blogged at last year's Winter Olympics in Turin, but it would have been "unofficially" and on a limited scale without any rules in place. There will be a much greater push for blogs at the more visible Summer Games in Beijing, and the IOC is trying to define its policy.

A subgroup of the IOC press commission recently concluded that blogging by athletes would not violate Olympic rules.

It proposed that athletes be allowed to blog, on condition they receive no payment, post their entries as a personal "diary or journal" and do not use photos, video or audio obtained at the games.

"Athlete blogs bring a more modern perspective to the global appreciation of the games, particularly for a younger audience, and enhance the universality of the games," the press group said.