The New York-based Students for a Free Tibet said two of their members hung a banner that said 'Free Tibet' on a bridge in the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, south of the National Stadium.

Another five or six members handcuffed themselves to each other and to bicycles at the front gate of the park, said Mr Lhadon Tethong, the group's executive director.

All - including Ms Pema Yoko, a half-Tibetan woman with Japanese citizenship - were detained by police and plainclothes security agents, Tethong said.

The journalist was identified as Mr John Ray of ITV News.

'The Tibetan protesters were in the park, Mr John Ray was running behind them, the police was running behind him,' said Ms Bessie Du, a Beijing-based producer for the programme, who watched the situation unfold from afar.

Ms Du said police put Ray into a car, despite his efforts to show them his Olympic press accreditation.

A man who answered the telephone at the Beijing Public Security Bureau refused to comment. The park's security director who would give only his surname, Dong, confirmed the protest took place.

'We always had security arrangements in place. Even before they could fully start the demonstration, we had them under control,' Mr Dong said.

The demonstration was the largest in a string of brief protests - mostly by foreigners hoping to use the Olympics to draw attention to their causes - throughout Beijing since the games started last week.

Most have had less than five people and foreign activists have been deported.

Also on Wednesday, a rights group said a Chinese activist who applied for permission to protest against corruption during the Olympics has been taken away by security agents.

Ji Sizun came to Beijing from the southern province of Fujian and wanted to demonstrate in one of three protest zones Chinese officials have designated for the games, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Mr Ji, 58, wanted to call for 'greater participation of Chinese citizens in the political processes, and denounce rampant official corruption and abuses of power', the group said.

He applied at the Deshengmenwai police station on August 8, the day the Olympics began, and disappeared three days later, when he went back to check on his application, it said.

'Eyewitnesses said Ji entered the police station at around 10:45 a.m. on August 11. At 12.15 pm, he was escorted out of the building and put into a dark-colored, unmarked Buick by several men who appeared to be plainclothes policemen,' the group said.

Mr Ji's cell phone was turned off on Wednesday. A man who answered the telephone at the Deshengmenwai police station said no one had been arrested or taken away.

'Petitioners have the right to apply. We don't dare to touch them,' said the officer. He refused to comment further and said he was too busy to give his name or position.

In July, China said protests would be allowed during the Olympics in three public parks far away from the main sports venues.

Mr Liu Shaowu, security chief for the Beijing Organising Committee, said applications to hold demonstrations must be filed five days in advance and would receive a response at least 48 hours before the requested rally time.

The protests must not harm 'national, social and collective interests', he said in comments posted on organising committee's Web site.

No protests have been reported so far in the zones. At least one of them is closely watched by what appears to be plainclothes agents, who film passers-by.

Police have not responded to repeated requests to reveal how many applications have been submitted or approved.

Activists were rounded up in the days before the Olympics and more have been taken away since the games began as Chinese authorities curb potential dissent during a competition supposed to showcase China as a world power.

On Tuesday, the son of a housing activist who was taken by authorities from her home last week, said his mother has been officially detained for a month for 'disturbing social order'.

The activist, Zhang Wei, who has been a vocal opponent of her family's forced eviction, had also tried to apply for permission to protest publicly, said her son, Mi Yu. -- AP