Outrage against IPL media restrictions spreads; INS threatens boycot

New Delhi, Apr 7 (UNI) After the Editors' Guild and the Sports Journalists Federation, the apex body of print media Indian Newspaper Society(INS) today threatened the Indian Premier League (IPL) with boycott of its cricket series, if it did not withdrew the ''ridiculous and restrictive''' terms for accreditation of media covering the event.

In a statement issued here, the INS said the conditions stipulated by the IPL were ''the most burdensome and restrictive'' in the history of media coverage of sports events.

It said it was ''ridiculous'' to suggest that the intellectual property rights on photographs could be vetsed in the organiser of the event rather than in the media organisations which had shot the photographs.

''Nowhere in the world is such a proposition applied to an event of public interest and we would not allow a beginning to be made in India,'' said INS Bahubali S Shah in a statement here.

He said the IPL must take serious note of the views expressed by the Editors Guild and the Sports Journalsits Federation and amend the proposed media accreditation terms, otherwise the INS would have no option but to advise its member publiucations not to cover the IPL matches.

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