Press boycott of Australian cricket due to accreditation terms

News agencies AP, Reuters and Agence France-Presse have chosen to suspend the coverage of Australian cricket events. The news agencies feel that the terms of accreditation are limiting the freedom of press.

The news agencies are boycotting the Australian cricket events starting this week with the New Zealand tour of Australia due to a dispute over terms of accreditation.

Cricket Australia has set limits to what can be published on websites that are not linked directly to an official newspaper or sports magazine. According to the International Herald Tribune, the Cricket Australia also reserves the right to forbid distribution of Cricket Australia coverage on any website that Cricket Australia finds objectionable.

The news agencies accuse the accreditation terms of not respecting editorial critique of the sport and the suspension of coverage comes as a direct result of these limitations.

“Reuters is regrettably unable to cover the upcoming cricket events in Australia, following unacceptable accreditation terms for journalists imposed by Cricket Australia”, said Christoph Pleitgen, Global Head of News Agency for Thomson Reuters.

“As in previous instances, this decision compromises our ability to report independently and objectively, and comes at the expense of global fans and sponsors”, he adds, according to Sportscity.com

In the IHT, AP Associate General Counsel Dave Tomlin agrees on that point and says that the AP “can’t agree to allow any outside party, especially one we’re covering, to tell us where we can and can’t distribute our news reports.” 

Related links:

• Newspaper organisations continue fight against sports organisations, Play the Game
• Newspaper publishers worry about new restrictions on sports coverage, Play the Game
• Newspaper editors fight sports photo restrictions, Play the Game