On the eve of the crucial India-Pakistan match, major news channels have decided to boycott press conferences, pre-match interviews and practice sessions of the World Cup.
This is in protest against the International Cricket Council (ICC) slapping a notice on them for “alleged breach of media guidelines”.
In a statement, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) said, “the NBA Board has decided that its members would stand united and voluntarily desist from accessing match venues or availing any other accreditation benefits like attending press conferences, practice sessions, interviews and so on.”
The NBA has 45 members including NDTV, CNN IBN, TV Today and regional news channels.
Justifying its stance, the NBA said, “This is in view of the unreasonable stand taken by the ICC at a crucial juncture of the ICC World Cup 2011 matches, which almost completely prohibits reporting of news relating to such an important event, and which is also in disregard of the fair dealing dispensation available to broadcasters under the Indian Copyright Law.”
NBA said its members had received notices in the last few days from the ICC “threatening that their accreditation would be cancelled unless they signed an undertaking as dictated by the ICC. According to the association, this is extremely restrictive as regards even legitimate news reporting on ICC matches.”