Lawsuit Against Gannett Raises Question: Who Controls Coverage of School Sports?

By: Mark Fitzgerald Across the nation, with varying degrees of intensity, newspapers and state scholastic athletic associations are skirmishing over the fundamental question of who controls the coverage of school sports.

In Wisconsin, the issue is going to court.

The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) is suing Gannett Co. Inc., parent of The Post-Crescent in Appleton, and the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, asserting that it owns the rights to any "transmission, Internet stream, photo, image, film, videotape, audiotape, writing, drawing or other depiction or description of any game action, information or commercial used" of the athletic events hosted by its member high schools.

Specifically, the lawsuit accuses the Post-Crescent of Webcasting streaming video of a high school playoff game last Nov. 8. The lawsuit was filed Dec. 5 in Portage County (Wisc.) Circuit Court, but was first reported Wednesday night on the P-C Web site by staff writer J.E. Espino. The paper had not learned of the lawsuit until it was served with court documents last week.

Illinois' high school sports authority and newspapers in that state fought a bitter battle over the issue of restrictions on sports coverage through the last school year.

In that case, it was the Illinois Press Association (IPA) and two newspapers -- State Journal-Register in Springfield, and The Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake -- that sued the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) over restrictions imposed on newspaper photographers at sporting events.

IHSA had contracted with a Wisconsin photography studio, which was given exclusive close access to high school competitions. IHSA also sought to restrict the resale of photos of high school events by newspapers.

Some Illinois newspapers shot photographs from the stands -- but many more refused to photograph the events, and explained the boycott in notes to readers.

The lawsuit was settled with an agreement giving IHSA the right to issue credentials to photographers, but not to restrict their access, except for safety considerations.

Later, the Illinois Legislature passed laws affirming the media's right to access to public high school games.

Wisconsin Newspaper Association Executive Director Peter Fox did not immediately return a voicemail message seeking comment, but told The Associated Press he did not expect a quick resolution of the dispute in his state.

Wisconsin papers fought the same fight in 2007 as Illinois did. The WIAA awarded a Wisconsin photography firm a contract for the exclusive resale of photos from sports events -- and restricted resale by other media. Many Wisconsin newspaper ignored the ban, and the WIAA did not push enforcement -- though it kept the policy on its books and promised to "revisit" the issue in the future, AP's Colin Fly reported Thursday.

"It would be nice if we could come to an early agreement and understanding based on what has happened in the past," Fox told the AP. "I'm not optimistic about it."

He said the WIAA demands amount to an "uncomprehensible overreach."

"They are essentially saying all these news reporting products are subject to WIAA control," Fox told AP. "If Wisconsin weekly and daily newspapers go ahead and capture these athletic events in certain forms of blogging or video or still photography, (the WIAA is saying) that Wisconsin newspapers can't use them in certain circumstances and they are owned by the private vendors that the WIAA has selected."

In the Post-Crescent story, Executive Editor Dan Flannery said the paper was "seeking to protect our rights to cover the news in whatever form or with whatever technology we have at our disposal."

The WIAA said it is not commenting on the issue.