Press Boycotts Indian Cricket Matches Over Restrictions On Digital Media
from the good-for-them dept
Last week, we wrote about how disappointing it was that American newspapers agreed to restrictions placed on them by Major League Baseball concerning how those newspapers could report on games online. You would think that newspapers reared on the idea of freedom of the press and editorial independence would not allow an organization they were covering to dictate the terms of coverage -- but they did. Luckily, it looks like reporters down in India are more willing to stand up for what they feel is right. Reader Bipin writes in to let us know of a very similar situation, where the Indian Premiere League put a number of restrictions on how the press could report online on its cricket competitions in India. Rather than agree to the restrictions, the press threatened to boycott IPL events entirely. Apparently the boycott threat has worked to get the league to back down a bit, though it may still end up with some restrictions. That still seems ridiculous, and hopefully the press will again point out that it needs to remain independent and cannot abide by any restrictions placed on it by the very organization it's covering.
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Filed Under: bans, cricket, india, journalism, media restrictions, reporters
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US media has played along. Sports are an easy and relatively cheap to cover, so the media will probably be happy as long as they are getting their sound bytes and box scores.
Right now the relationship is a house of cards between the media and the leagues. If one of the major media outlets decides "Oh, what the heck, we're going to call it the superbowl" or reports on live baseball statistics, then the whole thing could collapse. Of course, for that to happen one of the media outlets would first need to gag its lawyers.
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Maybe, but if they don't want free advertising and a way to reach out to the fans who probably WANT to track the league online then the league will probably suffer from lack of interest in the public.
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Press Boycotts Indian Cricket Matches Over Restrictions On Digital Media
For all the reasons, the media should only be advised to use its power judiciously.
Apart from that, the viewers would always need some benchmark to base their views upon. Let them do it their way..
After all, not all the things are meant to be changed.
Cheers,
Varun
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