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International news agencies not to cover IPL

— Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar

Star-studded opening: Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Shane Warne, Virender Sehwag, Ravi Shastri and Yuvraj Singh at the colourful opening ceremony of the Indian Premier League in Bangalore on Friday. The 44-day Twenty20 event kicked off with a match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

NEW DELHI: The international news agencies have advised their clients that they would not be covering the Indian Premier League (IPL) which began in Bangalore on Friday.

The decision follows the stand taken by the News Media Coalition (NMC) that it was “discriminatory for the accreditation terms [of the IPL] to prohibit international news agencies from being able to serve a specific group of users, such as cricket websites.”

Both Reuters and AFP issued advisories on Friday to state that they would not be able to provide coverage of IPL because of the restrictions imposed on photo coverage.

“AFP will not, until further notice, offer any text, photo or graphics coverage of the inaugural Indian Premier League cricket...due to restrictions imposed on international news agencies on the distribution of photographs,” the AFP advisory said.

The Press Trust of India (PTI) and the United News of India (UNI), the two national news agencies are, however, covering the tournament. PTI stated earlier that it would be covering the event “under protest.”

There were several conditions that were termed “unacceptable” by various media organisations and groups before the IPL climbed down and made drastic changes in the accreditation guidelines saving the event from a possible media boycott.

The clause prohibiting agencies from supplying photographs to cricket websites was, however, retained forcing the international news agencies to boycott the tournament.

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