China's foreign ministry announced Friday a relaxation of restrictions placed on foreign journalists in the period up to and including the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Financial Times reported. From January 1 next year, foreign journalists will no longer have to apply for permission from the relevant local authorities to do interviews outside of the cities where they are based. Under the new system, they will only have to seek permission from the person they want to interview. However, this new system will close at the conclusion of the Paralympics in October 2008 and does not apply to travel in the politically sensitive Xinjiang and Tibet regions. Meanwhile, in a move that reflects Beijing's attempts to balance media development with media control, domestic newspapers have been banned from listing shares despite approval being given for book publishing companies to pursue IPOs.