The Indian Premier League released on Tuesday its revised guidelines for media coverage of the inaugural tournament, formally withdrawing some of the original contentious clauses but maintaining its hardline stand on websites
Cricinfo staff08-Apr-2008
The IPL is set to be well-covered by the media after several restrictions in the media guidelines were toned down © Hampshire County Cricket Club
The Indian Premier League released on Tuesday its revised guidelines for media coverage of the inaugural tournament, formally withdrawing some of the original contentious clauses but maintaining its hardline stand on websites – they will not have access to photographs and their representatives will not be allowed into the venue during matches.The new guidelines were made public late in the evening, so there were no immediatereactions from the media industry, which had strongly condemned the earlier version.That prompted a meeting on Monday between IPL officials and senior journalists, atwhich some of the revisions were discusses. The revisions include the following:a.. A newspaper or a news agency can carry stand-alone still pictures of theTwenty20 matches in the print media and their websites without changing ormorphing, and for editorial reporting purposes only
b.. The IPRs of any publication shall not be restricted in terms of the clausewhich says that the accredited party should not use material which could challengeand damage the IPR of IPL
c.. The images should not be used in direct association with any marks, names orlogos of any third party and no part or whole of the image should be superimposedon
d.. No online use or publication or syndication of any such still photographicimage is allowed except for the website of the publication
e.. In place of the original condition that the IPL was entitled to use andreproduce any and all photographs of the accredited party, which should beuploaded on the IPL website by the latter within 24 hours, the IPL now says it mayrequest publications to provide for use and reproduction, free of charge,photographs from the publications
However, the revised guidelines reiterate the IPL’s stand vis-à-vis websites – notincluding those that are online versions of print publications – on tournamentcoverage. Website reporters, though granted accreditation, will be given access tothe venue the day before the match and for post match press conferences only – notduring matches.They also bar photographers from news agencies or other organisations from supplyingphotographs to these websites. No alternative provision has been specified forwebsites to source their pictures from, though on Monday the IPL said it was settingup a databank that could be accessed by these sites.The IPL also extended the deadline for media accreditations by two days till Thursday.