Results matching “amicable settlement soccer worl”

The world's most popular sporting event has rendered rapidly evolving technologies more in demand. Mobile phones, the Internet and interactive TV were all major media for watching the games, although television maintained its position as the preferred screen.

World football’s governing body, FIFA, and the World Association of Newspapers, WAN, today announced that they had reached agreement to lift all restrictions on digital publication of photographs of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

WAN has been negotiating with FIFA for seven months to overturn restrictions made by FIFA to web coverage of the soccer World Cup and ensure the free flow of information concerning the event to the media and by extension the public at large (see previous postings - see sources).
  

Today is a very important day for the future of sport news. Because FIFA has accepted to remove all restrictions about  online coverage - but not for mobile phones - of the Football World Cup (to be held in Germany in June 2006), there is now a major hope that the same scenario will happen for the 2008 Olympic games and that national sport leagues will limit their demands for restrictions.

What are the main lessons of this victory for press freedom against pure commercial interests:

1) all press organisations were united behind the World Association of Newspapers; from news agencies (AFP, Reuters...) to international organisations (ENPA in Europe), to national organisations such as ASNE, the American organisation of editors. When football is a major sport - as in Brazil or Germany -, news organisations also rallied and discussed the legal basis of so many restrictions.