By: E&P Staff The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) is fighting back against proposals it says could limit how newspapers next year cover the world's most popular sporting event, the World Cup.
A delegation from Paris-based WAN met last week with officials of the international soccer association known as FIFA to argue against restrictions on newspaper coverage, especially rules that limit when newspapers can post photos on their Web sites, and how many images they can publish online.
During the recent Confederations Cup and World Cup Draw, newspapers were banned from publishing photos on the Internet until two hours after the final whistle, WAN said. The association also noted that only single still images could be published, and not sequences of game action.
WAN said it fears those rules will be applied to the World Cup to be held next year in Germany.
"WAN finds that international sports event organizers are increasingly introducing unreasonably restrictive conditions for the normal exploitation by newspapers of images and text in their electronic media", WAN Director General Timothy Balding, said in a statement. "We believe these conditions are an infringement on the free access to information and we are determined to defend and promote the interests of newspaper publishers. This is the first in a series of meetings WAN will hold with major international sports groups to represent the rights of publishers."
WAN recently created a Sports Media Working Group to tackle the increasingly common phenomenon of sports bodies selling Internet and broadcast rights--and restricting newspaper coverage.
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