A FORTNIGHT from the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, Australia's two major publishers and main news agency are in a standoff with the International Rugby Board. All three are threatening to keep their journalists away from the tournament.
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The IRB requires reporters and photographers to be accredited to attend matches and team media conferences, but the publishers see its terms as so strict as to mean they may be better off covering it remotely.
News Ltd and Fairfax Media in Australia, publisher of the Herald, refuse to sign terms preventing them showing more than 90 seconds of footage on their websites or running ads before clips, despite Australian law allowing both under fair dealing exceptions to copyright protections for news reporting.
Publishers worry about setting a precedent in the digital age, with organisers seeking more revenue to cover costs through increasingly restrictive rights deals. The tournament has become a flashpoint for international media, drawing a line in the sand over increasingly prohibitive terms and conditions for access to matches and teams.
The chief executive of the Newspaper Publishers' Association, Mark Hollands, said they understood the IRB needed to earn revenue and had agreed not to run ''guerilla marketing'' ads implying sponsorship. ''But we do not accept the IRB is entitled to seek to dictate what material may legitimately be used to report news,'' he said.
The IRB's Rugby World Cup subsidiary said it was ''extremely disappointed'' by the publishers' move over the tournament, as it had already varied past practice to allow websites to show video clips.
Australian Associated Press is also arguing about terms of access, but the IRB is hopeful of resolving that dispute before kick-off on September 9.
The editor-in-chief of the Herald, Peter Fray, said readers would still be provided with ''full comprehensive coverage''.
Fairfax Media New Zealand has clarified that it has sought accreditation for the tournament.
''We've reached an accommodation with the IRB that will allow us to cover the World Cup as we wish to,'' explained Fairfax NZ's managing editor of sport, Trevor McKewen.
New Zealand's Prime Minister, John Key, has not ruled out stepping into the dispute. Mr Key, also Tourism Minister, said the media boycott would be a major blow.
''Obviously if the Australian media are not accredited then they'll [RWC] have less exposure and less opportunities and that would be very disappointing,'' he said. ''I don't think that's in the interest of Australia, their rugby fans, the media or the IRB.''
with Simon Plumb and Marika Hill
