Australia's Test cricket season opened on Thursday with international fans unable to follow the action after organisers locked global news agencies out of the ground in Brisbane.
The row also left Australia's largest media organisation, News Limited, unable to cover the first day of the Australia-Sri Lanka Test, although it secured a breakthrough with Cricket Australia later in the day. The world's top three global news agencies - Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Associated Press - have suspended all coverage of the 2007-08 season unless a deal can be agreed.
They say the dispute centres on unprecedented demands by CA, including that they hand over rights to all photos taken at matches. The first day of the season thus began with journalists and photographers from international news agencies and News Limited locked out of Brisbane's Gabba ground without accreditation.
It ended with CA issuing an apology after spokesman Peter Young said News Limited was only interested in transferring money from cricket's indigenous and schools programmes "into the pockets of (News Limited chief) Rupert Murdoch".
"Cricket Australia retracts and apologises for the inappropriate comment," chief executive James Sutherland said in a statement, paving the way for News Limited to become the last Australian media group to gain accreditation. That means international cricket lovers will be the main victims of CA's clampdown on photos, news reports, graphics and videos, leaving them unable to view photos of the Test or follow its progress in their local newspapers.
"It is especially unfortunate that fans around the world, in this case in Sri Lanka, are being deprived of their right to see images of their sport and read reports about such a major international event," said AFP chairman Pierre Louette.
Australia's Communications Minister Helen Coonan said it would be wrong for fans to suffer. "It's not Australian, and it's not cricket, we do not want fans to be caught in the middle of this dispute," Coonan's office told The Australian newspaper.
The conditions imposed on photographers and journalists applying for CA accreditation raise grave concerns about press freedom and have left the agencies unable to report on the first Test, the agencies said.
CA has insisted it holds the intellectual property rights to agency photographs taken at its venues, and that those photos cannot be re-sold without its permission. The agencies have refused to give up their rights but have said they hope to cover the series if there is an acceptable agreement on accreditation.
They declined a compromise offer from CA under which they would pay a licence fee to resell photographs, saying such a charge runs counter to fundamental principles of news coverage. The restriction was lifted 90 minutes before the tournament kicked off.
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