The Nieman Foundation, a prestigious mid-career journalism fellowship program at Harvard, yesterday pulled out of its sponsorship of a controversial workshop to prepare Chinese officials for media relations at the upcoming 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Robert H. Giles, curator of the foundation and a class of 1966 Nieman fellow, had formally announced on Monday that the Nieman Foundation would be sponsoring training in press operations for 40 Chinese government officials.

However, rumors about the program had been circulating among members of the press prior to its official announcement, according to an article in The New York Times.

Howard Berkes, a National Public Radio correspondent and class of 1998 Nieman who had heard the rumor, sparked controversy on Sunday at a Nieman alumni reunion when he confronted Giles with what he had heard.

“The program was clearly inappropriate for the Nieman Foundation, a foundation dedicated to openness in journalism,” Berkes said, questioning whether the program “by design or not” would aid Chinese officials in subverting the press to broadcast a better image.

“Shock waves” rippled through the room after Giles confirmed the rumors, according to an article for the Poynter Institute by Nieman alum Molly Sinclair McCartney, who was at the meeting.

Numerous Nieman alumni had questions for Giles following the disclosure. Though there were many who openly objected to the proposed program, Giles appeared undisturbed by the questioning, according to the article.

Giles’ time as curator of the Nieman Foundation has been the subject of controversy recently. In February, a front page article in the Boston Globe lambasted Giles for stimulating alumni unrest concerning his expansion of the foundation’s focus to hold events and workshops for non-Nieman journalists.

However, Giles said that “Any additional things we do that might bring in other journalists are done with the Niemans in mind first.” He noted that the Nieman fellows are always invited to such events and are often presenters at them.

At the reunion on Sunday, current Niemans stood up for Giles’ efforts.

“Several members of the class talked about the wonderful experience they were having, how much these additional programs have added to their experience and how much they appreciated it,” Giles said.

In the end, Giles said his decision to revoke the Nieman Foundation’s participation in the training program was due to the possible damage that it might do to the reputation of the Nieman Foundation, considered the oldest and best known fellowship program of its kind.

“The continuing controversy represented a risk to our reputation,” he said, adding that a major function of his job was to protect the reputation of the Nieman foundation.

The controversial program had been organized in large part by Ford Professor of the Social Sciences Ezra Vogel, a former director of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research and the Harvard University Asia Center. Vogel began to put together plans for the program after being contacted by an official on the Chinese Olympic committee hoping to receive help on how to deal with the demands of the world press.

Vogel, who believed that the Chinese were genuine in their desire to le0arn about the Western press, then contacted Giles for assistance.

Yesterday’s press release revoked the Nieman Foundation’s sponsorship of the program, but did not definitively cancel the workshop, only saying that it “may continue under other Harvard sponsorship.”

Current collaborators on the project include the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, the Harvard University Asia Center, and, according to an article in the New York Times, officials at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

—Staff writer Alexander H. Greeley can be reached at agreeley@fas.harvard.edu.