News agencies end boycott of Australian cricket

But they reached an agreement on Friday, allowing the agencies to start coverage of the second test in Hobart, which started the same day.

“Reuters is very happy to resume its timely and premium coverage after Cricket Australia withdrew its unacceptable restrictions to the freedom of coverage,” Monique Villa, Reuters managing director, media, said in a statement.

“Cricket Australia has finally agreed to withdraw its request for a licence fee to cover the events and restrictions preventing Reuters from distributing news to all its media clients.

“Reuters refused to discriminate among clients and is satisfied that Cricket Australia has finally abandoned its attempt to restrict our rights.”

The dispute centred around CA’s demand that media pay for the right to distribute photographs from their event.

JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY

CA had also wanted to put restrictions on the agencies’ right to sell photographs to individuals freely as well as disputing the categories of news organisations the agencies were free to sell pictures to.

The agencies refused to sign the agreement, saying it threatened their journalistic integrity, but said they were now satisfied.

“Reuters regrets to have been constrained to take this course of action for the last two weeks and is extremely satisfied with the outcome which shows that the coalition has been right to refuse compromise on the fundamental principles of press freedom,” added Villa.

CA spokesman Peter Young said: “It’s good news. The issues are complex and will continue to cause global arguments between the media and the sports industry.

“After a week of very robust discussions we have come to a prgamatic solution that suits both parties.

“More importantly the public access to the game will increase because there are now more people covering the game.”

The three international agencies missed last week’s first test in Brisbane after refusing to agree on terms of accreditation but were hoping to cover the second match after CA called a meeting in London.

The dispute had divided the cricket community.

Indian cricket authorities said they supported CA’s actions and may introduce similar restrictions on media for their home matches.

Sri Lanka and New Zealand, however, had expressed their concerns while Australian politicians, trade union leaders and sections of the media accused CA of being “greedy”.

Sri Lankan cricket authorities had appealed to CA to end the dispute because of fears it would reduce worldwide coverage of spinner Muttiah Muralitharan breaking the world record for the most test wickets.

The media row could not have come at a worse time for cricket officials, with the game still reeling from negative coverage over the organisation of this year’s World Cup in the West Indies, while global attendances and television ratings are declining.

Australia are the highest ranked team in world cricket but only 55,953 people attended the five days of the first Sri Lanka test while television viewing figures were down nearly 41 per cent on last year, according to a report in Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph.