Draconian media laws that almost resulted in a blackout of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which begins in South Africa on Saturday, could red-card major sporting events heading to the country, including the 2010 World Cup.

The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) is locked in a duel with Fifa, the world footballing authority, over restrictive media proposals. These include censorship and a ban on independent websites covering the upcoming Confederations Cup matches, as well as a proposal that prevents a new agency from supplying material to a third party.

The editors’ body is also challenging Cricket South Africa (CSA) about restrictions it intended imposing but withdrew before the current series against Australia, following protests by Sanef, as well as the CSA’s attempt to prescribe to the media how cricket captain Graeme Smith should be portrayed when wearing the Proteas uniform.Raymond Louw, a Sanef member, said cricket and rugby sporting administrators had also put in place proposals that effectively clamped down on media freedom.

Louw said the commercialisation of sport was being used by administrators to keep tighter control of the various codes, even if it meant censoring the media.

He said Sanef supported the News Media Coalition (NMC) which, acting on behalf of global media groups, had agreed to cover IPL matches after initially threatening to boycott them because of the IPL’s media demands. The contracts to gain media access stipulate that photo news material could not be distributed for use by certain cricket news websites, but Sanef argued that such a clause discriminated against news subscribers, compromised the media’s freedom to inform and set a bad precedent for other major events. This clause prevented all major international news and photo agencies attending the inaugural IPL in India last year.

Andrew Moger, the NMC spokesperson, said the media are now able to provide coverage of this cricketing spectacle. But the tension between media and sports administrators looks set to stay, with Sanef and the CSA set to clash over restrictions on coverage and an implied limitation on the use of pictures of Smith in Proteas kit.

Sanef believes the CSA’s powers relate to Smith’s appearance at match venues and on practice fields, but do not extend to pictures of him in kit taken in public places.

With the Confederations Cup and the World Cup on the horizon, Louw said Sanef was concerned that in terms of Fifa requirements, a media practitioner, when applying for accreditation, would bind his or her organisation to terms and conditions it may not be aware of; and that the regulations concerning confidentiality on the website amount to censorship if material can be published only with Fifa’s permission. “The media cannot be bound by conditions on publication imposed by any body – except a court,” he said.

The editors’ body was also upset that Fifa could terminate a journalist’s membership of the media channel without warning.

Hans Klaus, the Fifa director of communications, noted Sanef’s concerns about Fifa’s password-protected internet-based media service and said that the football body needed to have a proper accreditation procedure in place.

Klaus said the wording of the confidentiality regulation had been amended and media would be free to use information on its media channel for editorial purposes.
Source – iol.co.za