ITN accredited journalist John Ray was reporting on a pro-Tibet demonstration near the Olympic stadium. When he was dragged by Chinese police to a nearby restaurant and was forcibly held on the ground whilst other officers stamped on his hands.

Mr Ray, China correspondent for Independent Television News (ITN) was detained in the restaurant and then in a police car before being released. His bag was confiscated.

Mr Ray said: "This was an assault in my mind, I am incredibly angry about this."

Ray's shoes were scuffed, the back of his trousers and shirt were covered in grime and he displayed some bruising on his hand.

Ray said he clearly told the officers in Chinese that he was a journalist during the incident, which happened about one kilometre (0.6 miles) south of the main Olympic Stadium in northern Beijing.

"I tried to explain to them that I was a British journalist but they would not even let me take out my identifiction documents, they were very rough," Ray said.

"I am just wondering where this fits in with China's solemn undertaking to allow us to report freely during the Olympics."

ITN cameraman Ben England was trying to film the protest but he was physically prevented from doing so by police who manhandled him too. The Chinese authorities are armed with umbrellas which they use to block cameras from filming 'sensitive' news stories.

China has repeatedly pledged to allow foreign broad media freedoms to do their work during the Games, but have come under criticism for continuing to stop them from reporting on sensitive issues.