HOBART, AUSTRALIA (November 16, 2007) - The photographic media's boycott of the Test cricket series has ended after Reuters, the Associated Press, Agence France-Press, and Getty Images reached an agreement with Cricket Australia today. The lock out of the wire service and agency photographers is over, and photo coverage of cricket will begin Saturday at CA's second Test match between Australia and Sri Lanka.
“I think we’ve been able to convince Cricket Australia that vigorous independent news coverage is crucial to the health of their sport, and that trying to suppress, restrict or co-opt us is not only wrong but against their own best interests," said Associated Press associate general counsel Dave Tomlin in New York. "So this is a good day for cricket in every way."
“We’ve left a few important details to be worked out later, so we’re going back in on a somewhat provisional basis. But both sides have shown a lot of good faith up to now, so we’re confident we’ll be able to tie the last loose ends up without further disruptions in coverage," Tomlin said.
CA spokesman Peter Young told the Australian newspaper The Age that the two parties had reached a pragmatic short-term solution following "a week of very robust discussions," but he declined to report the terms of the agreement.
A coalition of news and media organizations came together and formed the News Media Coalition (NMC) to fight Cricket Australia (CA) over the terms of their credentials and who owned the rights to photographs taken while covering CA events. CA wanted to charge money for media credentials, and to own the rights to the images shot, and to make press agencies pay licensing fees in order to distribute their own images.
Today in a statement, the News Media Coalition said, "NMC has reached an agreement in its talks with Cricket Australia regarding news coverage during the current season. Cricket Australia and the News Media Coalition, representing the views of newspapers and news agencies worldwide, reached a provisional arrangement which safeguards editorial freedom and allows for coverage to return to normal in time for the second Sri Lanka Test."
The agreement means that rules for accreditation access to Cricket Australia events will be amended as follows:
The new negotiated terms will apply for any NMC members not yet accredited, and will be offered to other news groups who currently have separate arrangements;
Cricket Australia will conduct an internal review to identify those uses of content owned by news organisations which CA is concerned may cut across its existing commercial arrangements.
NMC's statement said, "The successful outcome, although provisional, follows lengthy discussions aimed at ensuring that there are no fees for journalist attendance nor any arbitrary limitation on news distribution; editors can update their Web sites more frequently with pictures, text and data; editorial decisions remain in the hands of the editors; and that access arrangements are applied consistently across all news media organisations."
Both the Coalition and CA agree that this settlement is for this current season only, and that discussions should begin imminently to collaborate on issues that have arisen." The NMC is pleased to acknowledge the support of a wide variety of news media organisation, including publishers in Australia, in the campaign to defend press freedoms."
Australia, which has won its last 13 Test, leads the two-match series after winning in Brisbane by 40 runs last Monday.
