Sport - Cricket

Agencies to boycott coverage of CA events

CHENNAI: The News Media Coalition, a not-for-profit organisation focussed on the threat to independent journalism, has stated that several of its members will suspend coverage of Cricket Australia (CA) events after a dispute involving terms of accreditation.

International agencies Reuters, AP, and AFP had said earlier that they will boycott CA events including the first Test between Australia and New Zealand which begins on Thursday in Brisbane.

“Any decisions by news organisations to suspend plans to cover events of public interest are taken with enormous reluctance,” said the News Media Coalition in a release.

“It also indicates the degree to which news organisations feel their operations and consumer choice are being challenged.”

The terms under dispute among other matters include: restrictions on how newspaper websites can be updated; CA’s insistence on veto power over which websites, non-sports magazine news agencies, and newspaper syndication services could serve with news; rules preventing distribution of content to mobile phone services; a refusal to acknowledge in writing the importance of editorial freedom; procedures which don’t allow for remedy of suspected breaches.

A similar situation occurred during the first Test between Australia and Sri Lanka last November which the three agencies boycotted.

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