Hampering reporting during Beijing Olympics in 2008

When Beijing got the Olympic Games for 2008 it promised foreign media would get the same possibilities to report as they got during other Olympic Games. No less, no more. Some human rights organizations have been trying to push the envelope by suggesting China should also give its domestic media similar freedoms, but that was a spin that could only work among people who have no clue about China. (Mind you, still a lot.)
Now, delivering that promise is hard enough, I was told by an insider of one of the larger news operations, because of the way this country is organized. This news organization is getting hundreds of people into the country and they want to broadcast from over one hundred places in China, like they did elsewhere.
Unfortunately, this country is basically run on a local level and that means that this organization (and probably a few others too) need to get not one permission to broadcast, but 110. Every village the marathon passes, every district that is involved, wants to have its own say. Now, you can get that done, but you need to invite 110 local governments to dinner parties, drink loads of Chinese liquor and you have to do it fast, since more are waiting.
The central authorities cannot really avoid that hurdle, unless they would send out their leaders to get drunk with the local authorities. Nobody really likes this job, but in China's current situation, the local authorities are masters in their own house.