Paris: Reporters Without Borders is encouraging journalists covering the Beijing Olympics to skirt censorship with tips on how to get around firewalls, lock computer files and find safe translators.

After China backed away from a promise to lift all Internet blocks on foreign media during the games, the Paris-based organisation published a guide on the Internet, advising reporters to conduct phone calls and write e-mails with the knowledge that they may be monitored.

The new guide will likely help only journalists who have not yet left for Beijing: The press freedom group says its Web site, http://www.rsf.org , remains blocked in China.

Chinese officials assured news organisations "complete freedom to report" when bidding for the games seven years ago. The International Olympic Committee received further such assurances in April. But Kevan Gosper, a senior member of the IOC, said this week that the promise will apply only to sites related to "Olympic competitions".