By: The Illinois High School Association delivered a counterpunch Wednesday in an ongoing legal fight with the state press association over rights to sell photographs from high school championships.
The feud pitted publishers pushing for a free press and athletic officials who claimed that papers want to profit off athletes.
The IHSA filed a countersuit Wednesday in Sangamon County Circuit Court asking a judge to declare that it had the right to impose limits on how newspapers use photos and to restrict their access to games if the papers don?t comply.
The move came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Illinois Press Association last month over IHSA media policies, including a provision aimed at stopping papers from selling state championship pictures taken by staff photographers.
Wednesday?s countersuit, which names the Illinois Press Association, the Northwest Herald, the Journal Star of Peoria, and The State Journal-Register of Springfield, sought damages of at least $50,000.
The countersuit was necessary ?to bring definitive resolution? to the dispute, the IHSA said in a statement Wednesday.
?We are in no way interfering with any newspaper?s ability to report the news,? said Marty Hickman, IHSA?s executive director. ?You don?t need to sell a photo in order to report the news, nor does selling the photo enhance the news.?
The press association did not immediately return a message Wednesday evening from The Associated Press.
Photographers from the papers named in Wednesday?s countersuit were not given access to the field during recent state high school football championships because the IHSA said that they refused to agree not to sell their photographs.
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