Indian media end IPL cricket boycott, Intl news agencies undecid

New Delhi, Apr 17 (UNI) Decks have been cleared for the coverage of the IPL's Twenty20 cricket tournament by Indian Print and Electronic media with the League withrawing most of the instructions imposed earlier, but the international news agencies were still reviweing their options.

The tournament is starting tomorrow.

The IPL heaved a sigh of relief late last night after the News Broadcasters Association(NBA), which represents major TV channels of the country, ended its boycott following an agreement reached with it in Mumbai.

The League authorities and its television rights holder, Sony TV had a long meeting with their NBA counterparts at Mumbai to work out a solution to the dispute that arose out of the unprecedented restrictions put by the IPL on the media coverage of the event, and the NBA warning to boycott the event if the restrictions were not withdrawan.

News agencies like PTI and UNI would also be covering the event, but PTI said they would be covering the tournement under protest for some of the remaining restrictions.

However, the News Media Coalition(NMC), an international organisation focussed on the specific threat to editorial operations, today expresed its dissatisfaction with the existing arrangements.

In a statement, the Coalition called upon the League to remove remaining obstacles in the way of full editorial coverage of the tournament, starting tomorrow.

As terms of journalistic access to games still prevent photographs from games being used on cricket websites, the international news agencies are reviewing each their options for coverage, including not seeking to attend at all, it said These news agencies believe that there should be no discrimination as to who can subscribe to their news service.

It is discriminatory for the accreditation terms to prohibit the news agencies from being able to serve a specific group of users, such as cricket websites, the ''Major international news agencies and news picture agencies including Reuters, AP, AFP and Getty have stated that they object to such discrimination and would not be able to accept the accreditation terms as long as concerns with this prohibition remain unaddressed,'' it said.

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