Newspapers join press freedom fight against IRB

Media Release

16 March 2007

NZ newspaper publishers join press freedom fight against IRB

New Zealand news media have joined a global struggle against the International Rugby Board’s attempts to restrict freedoms to report news surrounding the Rugby World Cup in France later this year.

“The IRB is attempting to highjack legitimate news coverage of the event for commercial purposes and seems blind to the responsibilities media have for covering news of public interest,” says Peter O’Hara, President of the Newspaper Publishers’ Association (NPA) which co-ordinated a recent meeting with visiting IRB officials in Wellington.

“We have done what we can to convince the IRB not to impose draconian restrictions on New Zealand non-rights television companies – in this case TVNZ and Sky – which would see them being allowed to screen only 30 seconds, not only of any World Cup game but of the associated after-match press conference and player interviews at the game venue.

“We are hoping that following the meeting, the IRB will confirm that they will revert to allowing two minutes of coverage in news programmes which is the normal practice in this country and which is still less than that provided for in Australia,” says Mr O’Hara.

The IRB has told news organisations in New Zealand and worldwide that they will not allow print media organisations such as newspapers to briefly cover events on their news websites with live or recorded audio and video from such events as post-match press conferences, team training and any other event carried out at official venues of the World Cup tournament.

“We respect and understand the need to protect rights holders but alongside that there is a traditional right and responsibility to provide brief news excerpts,’’ Mr O’Hara said.

``Print media have been an integral part of the relationship between rugby and the public for generations but what the IRB is doing threatens long standing relationships which we believe are very important to rugby and sports-loving people generally, let alone the interests of rugby itself and its commercial sponsors,” says Mr O’Hara.

``The position of the IRB refuses to recognise the reality of modern media who have quickly adapted to meeting their responsibility to provide news to readers and viewers wherever they wish to see it. ‘’

The concerns of New Zealand are endorsed by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) based in Paris which has called the IRB restrictions “a serious breach of freedom of the Press”.

WAN, representing the world’s newspapers, and the coalition of news agencies including Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press, Reuters and Getty Images, told the International Rugby Board and the AFL that they would explore their legal options and inform event sponsors of “the very clear loss of exposure from which they will suffer owing to these restrictions.”
“Your position reflects, frankly, a lack of understanding of the meaning of freedom of the press and the nature of the modern news enterprise,” WAN and the news agencies said in a letter to Mike Miller, CEO and General Secretary of the International Rugby Board.

ENDS

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