IT garnered months of hype in the lead-up but, now it has begun, international news coverage of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament has been sharply curtailed by a decision by the top wire services to shun the event to protest curbs on how they can use their photographs.
On Friday, the day the 44-day, 59-match tournament started, Agence France-Presse told clients it would not "offer any text, photo or graphics coverage of the inaugural Indian Premier League cricket ... due to restrictions imposed on international news agencies on the distribution of photographs".
Reuters, Associated Press and Getty Images are also participating in the blackout. Their stand has been supported by the members of the London-based News Media Coalition, which include News Limited (publisher of The Australian) Fairfax Media, and other media bodies, such as the Editors Guild of India.
The ban has left local newspapers largely bereft of images, which domestic news organisations had expected to source from the international wires.
The News group sent a reporter and a photographer to cover the tournament's opening days, but they returned last night.
"We wanted to cover the start of the next revolution in cricket. It was never our intention to cover the whole thing as a sporting tournament," said News group editorial operations director Campbell Reid.
"We also very strongly support the decision of the international news agencies. Frankly, if the organisers don't really want to have their event covered by the world's media, then we can assist them in that."
Fairfax had a reporter at the tournament but no photographer, said spokesman Bruce Wolpe.
"Our (accredited) India correspondent may go to one or two matches and take photos, so we may get some shots that way. There is also a Sun-Herald journalist on holidays there. But these are snippets, and not how we want our readers served," he said.
"So we are suffering like every other user of news agency content in that there are no pictures being made available, and we think it's a disgrace. It is not in the public interest."
AAP said it was covering only the performances of the Australian cricketers off the Ten Network's live TV coverage.
No one from the IPL could be contacted for comment.
Although the IPL scrapped the most onerous restrictions in its initial accreditation terms, including a ban on newspapers using pictures on their websites and a demand that it be given all photographic copyright, it kept a ban on agencies supplying pictures to standalone specialised websites.
The News Media Coalition, a lobby group for global news and photograph agencies, said it was discriminatory to prohibit international news agencies from serving a specific group of users.
"The interests of the Indian Premier League are protected by the fact that its accreditation terms limit news content generated by the news agencies to be used for editorial purposes only," it said.
The IPL row is the latest in a string of picture rights disputes.
In Australia, media outlets including News have tussled with Cricket Australia, the Australian Football League and the International Rugby Board over demands for payment to use photos for editorial purposes or restrictions on how photos can be used.
Media companies argue sports events are news events and they should be allow to cover them freely and for free.
The next dispute is already brewing, with New Zealand Rugby Union seeking to control usage of photos from June's rugby tournament between New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Ireland and England.
The IPL tournament runs until June 1. Lured by big payouts, 24 Australian players and coaches are involved, including Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath and Andrew Symonds, who is the highest-paid with a salary of almost $1.5 million.
No comments:
Post a Comment