At the end of this week, China will send an important signal about its commitment to greater press freedom. The trouble is no one yet knows whether it will step forwards or backwards. Foreign journalists in Beijing are eager to know because we're directly affected, but our readers will be too. What's more, what happens to reporting rights for foreign journalists may also hold hints about future prospects for the Chinese media, who are the real key to well-informed public debate emerging here.

What's at issue is State Council Decree No. 477. The decree expires on Oct 17th. It's full Orwellian name is the Regulations on Reporting Activities in China by Foreign Journalists During the Beijing Olympic Games and the Preparatory Period, which is a pretty good description of what it was about. It eased serious restrictions on the rights of foreign journalists. Before its Jan 2007 introduction, foreign correspondents had to ask for local government permission to do interviews in any province or city they wanted to visit. This required them to give the provincial foreign affairs office a full interview list and schedule. Interviewees were often swiftly intimidated or permission denied.

In practice, journalists often ignored this restriction and the authorities increasingly let us get away with it.  Nonetheless such interviews were illegal, so Decree No. 477 was a big step forward. It says foreign journalists need only obtain "prior consent" from organizations or individuals they want to interview.

It hasn't worked perfectly. Many thuggish local officials have tried to stop journalists doing their work and some reporters have even been wrestled to the ground or had equipment damaged. It excluded Tibet, and during Tibetan protests in March reporters were turned away from Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces too. Up till Sept 11 2008, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China had documented 336 cases of interference in reporting. What's more so many incidents took place during the Olympic period that interference this year has already overtaken the whole of last year, with 176 cases by early September, compared to 160 in 2007. But it was a step forward. These Olympic reporting rules expire on Friday. So last week, someone asked the Foreign Ministry's spokesman at a regular press briefing to tell us what'll happen. Here's what he said:

"Though the Beijing Olympics is over, China's principle of opening up stays unchanged. The door of China remains open to the world. Foreign media and journalists are welcome to report in China as always. We will continue to provide active facilitation and assistance to you. This will remain Was that a "Yes"? Or was it a "No"?  It sounds OK, but might not be. You'll notice spokesman Qin Gang didn't actually answer the question. In fact, listening to him, I wondered if nothing will happen on Friday and we'll be left to go on guessing.