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Rugby World Cup Begins, With or Without Media Coverage
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by Jordan Yerman | September 7, 2007 at 06:44 am
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Update: An 11th-hour agreement allowed the bog news bureaus to transmit photos to media outlets around the world who are covering the Rugby World Cup- the agreement was reached just before Argentina and France took the field for the openign game. Argentina won, but by more than two points.
[q
url="http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__sport/&articleid=318655&referrer=RSS"]The
media boycott of the Rugby World Cup was lifted on Friday, just 90
minutes before the first match kicked-off, after an agreement was
reached between the International Rugby Board (IRB) and the media
coalition, the management of AFP announced.
The dispute over reporting restrictions, which had led to the three
main news agencies -- Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Associated
Press --- suspending coverage of the event, had become increasingly
tense.
But with the minutes ticking away before the start of first game
between hosts France and Argentina due to kick-off at 7am GMT, both
sides in the bitter dispute announced they had reached a breakthrough.
The news agencies, the World Association of Newspapers and their
allies strongly opposed conditions which would allow just 50 photos to
be transmitted during each match. This was to made up of 20 photos per half and five for each half in any extra time.[/q]
Ready or not, here it comes... the Rugby World Cup gets underway today, with hosts France squaring off against Argentina. Angryindian predicts a two-point victory by Argentina in a comment on an earlier article... let's see how it all goes down.
Meanwhile, the boycott by majore news outlets continues, as the International Rugby Board and the AFP, AP and Reuters squabble over a 50-image limit on media transmissions per game.I don't know about you, but if I were attending, I'd be taking fifty shots per half. At least. In any event, such a limit is unworkable in practice, since more than one photographer would be working for each agency, and they would not necessarily be coordinating effors, since they'd be competing for whose shots ultimately get published. meanwhile, the stands will be full of citizen sports correspondents with digital cameras. That's all I'm saying. You can upload footage via that orange button in the upper right...
Leading international media on Friday called on the International Rugby Board to hold negotiations to end a coverage boycott of the rugby World Cup to protest at reporting restrictions.
The dispute has become more tense as the three main international news agencies -- Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Associated Press -- maintained their news, photo and television boycott into the final hours before the tournament's kick off.
"The political and sponsor communities have expressed their understandable desire for this matter to be resolved for the sake of the rugby-loving fans and we share in their sentiment. It is for the IRB to respond to those calls for a meeting," said a statement released by the media coalition.
"It is more than two days since the news media organisations put forward a possible peace plan -- but the IRB has yet to formally respond or to set up a meeting. We do not believe it is the best interest of the game of rugby for the IRB to drag its feet any longer."
Earlier:
Leading international news organizations boycotted preliminary events on Thursday for the Rugby World Cup in a worsening feud over the use of online photographs that has prompted some journalists to shun a news conference with ex-rugby stars organized by the sporting event's prime sponsor, Visa International.The athletes appeared for a morning news conference to handicap the tournament of 48 matches staged mostly in France, but major news agencies stayed away, among them The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, DPA, Getty Photos, and newspapers associated with News International.
The news groups, part of a coalition of about 30 companies and trade associations, also boycotted a photo opportunity organized by another sponsor, Adidas, to bring together the ex-soccer great Zinedine Zidane, with members of the favored rugby team in the tournament, New Zealand's All Blacks.
AFP issued an explanation to its clients claiming "fundamental rights are at stake," and Reuters announced the suspension of coverage including text, photo and video news of the Rugby Cup to "defend editorial integrity."
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 14:05 on September 7th, 2007
Can you explain why the league would limit foto numbers per match? sounds absurd..