Sport

Editors Guild asks IPL to withdraw remaining unacceptable conditions

Chennai: The Editors Guild of India, in a statement on Wednesday, has asked the DLF-Indian Premier League (IPL) to withdraw the “remaining unacceptable conditions (for media accreditation) regarding news websites and news channels.”

Noting that the removal of several of the IPL’s restrictive conditions had helped restore the freedom of the press, the Guild said that the curbs on supplying photographs to standalone cricket websites and feed to news television channels should be removed.

The following is the text of the Guild’s statement issued by its Secretary General K.S. Sachidananda Murthy:

The Editors Guild of India compliments the entire Indian media which joined the Guild’s initiative in preserving the freedom of the press to cover sporting events, and resisted the unacceptable terms and conditions for accreditation of journalists imposed by the Indian Premier League organisers for coverage of the IPL tournament beginning on April 18.

The Guild has noted that the conditions, which placed severe constraints on news media, and directly affected the freedom of editors, newspapers and news agencies, have been removed in the updated terms and conditions by IPL. The IPL has scrapped the earlier terms and conditions, which included submission of all photographs taken by accredited photographers to IPL for its global and perpetual commercial use; bar on newspapers from using the pictures in their websites; and bar on news agencies from supplying pictures to their subscribers. The dropping of these conditions restores the freedom of the editors, photographers, newspapers and news agencies.

The Guild however regrets that the news agencies have been barred from supplying pictures to one set of subscribers, namely standalone specialised websites. The news agencies should have the total freedom to supply news and pictures to all their subscribers. The Guild notes that the news agencies are in dialogue with the IPL organisers to remove this clause also from the terms and conditions.

Similarly the sole telecast rights licence has put new conditions on giving feed to news television channels. These are not acceptable, and the Guild fully supports the stand taken by the News Broadcasters Association.

The Guild reiterates that the existing accreditation policies and rules of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for Test and One-Day Matches should be applicable for IPL also, in respect of news agencies, websites and news broadcast channels.

From the beginning the Guild had maintained freedom of press is non-negotiable and the Guild firmly believed that the right of coverage of news events cannot come with any conditions which restrain the editor from discharging his duties fully and fairly. The Guild is thankful to editors of newspapers and news agencies, who took up this issue vigorously through their columns and other fora.

The Guild is highly indebted to the support of professional media organisations like the Sports Journalists Federation of India, Indian Newspaper Society, Working News Cameramen Association, Delhi Union of Journalists, News Broadcasters Association and News Media Coalition for their support to the Guild’s campaign to scrap the unacceptable conditions, which have now been withdrawn by the IPL.

The Guild is thankful to Mr. Sharad Pawar, President, BCCI, and other office-bearers of BCCI for their support to the Indian media as well as to the IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi who was responsive to the communications from the Guild. The Guild reiterates that the remaining unacceptable conditions regarding news websites and news channels too should be withdrawn.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu