Editors Guild urges IPL to remove remaining restrictions

New Delhi, Apr 16 (UNI) The Editors Guild of India today welcomed the IPL decision to remove some of the restriction put on media coverage of its cricket tournament, but said the condition barring news agencies from supplying pictures of its cricket tournament to one set of subscribers, namely standalone specialised websites, should also be scrapped.

''The news agencies should have the total freedom to supply news and pictures to all their subscribers,''It said.

Similarly the sole telecast rights licence has put new conditions on giving feed to news television channels, which were not acceptable, and the Guild fully supported the stand taken by the News Broadcasters Association, it said.

It, however, welcomed the IPL move to scrap the earlier terms and conditions which included submission of all photographs taken by accredited photographers to IPL for its global and perpetual commercial use; bar on newspapers from using the pictures in their websites; and bar on news agencies from supplying pictures to their subscribers, saying the dropping of these conditions restored the freedom of the editors, photographers, newspapers and news agencies.

The Guild complimented the entire Indian media for resisting the unacceptable terms and conditions imposed by IPL.

It said the existing accreditation policies and rules of the Board of Control for Cricket in India for Test and One Day Matches should be applicable to IPL also, in respect of news agencies, websites and news broadcast channels.

''From the beginning, the Guild has maintained Freedom of Press is non negotiable and it firmly believes that the right of coverage of news events cannot come with any conditions which restrain the editor from discharging his duties fully and fairly,'' Guild Secretary General K S Sachidanand Murthy said here.

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