Media coalition calls for World Cup Rugby settlement

A statement issued by the 40-strong News Media Coalition insisted: "The political and sponsor communities have expressed their understandable desire for this matter to be resolved for the sake of the rugby-loving fans and we share in their sentiment. It is for the IRB to respond to those calls for a meeting.

"It is more than two days since the news media organisations put forward a possible peace plan – but the IRB has yet to formally respond or to set up a meeting. We do not believe it is the best interest of the game of rugby for the IRB to drags its feet any longer."

“Come back to negotiating table”

EU information and media commissioner Viviane Reding also called for both parties "to come back to the negotiating table", saying "everything possible should be tried to ensure that such an important and valuable sporting event which is important to millions of Europeans and sports fans can be reported on as widely and (be as) available as possible."

The coalition welcomed some initial concessions by the IRB while noting that they had been agreed long before the escalation of the dispute which had prompted the withdrawal of pre-event coverage by major international news agencies including Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse. In a further unprecedented step, each of British national press decided not to cover the England team big photo-call of the day.

"Regrettably there remains a small number of key areas which have yet to be addressed and resolved by RWCL and IRB," continued the Coalition statement.

These included restrictions on news website picture content during games and on daily non-game video footage.

The coalition insisted: "Our members remain committed to covering the World Cup via text, pictorial and audio-visual platforms. However despite repeated approaches, requests, written and verbal correspondence, RWCL and IRB have not offered any opportunity to meet or discuss these outstanding issues and achieve a resolution.

“Remain committed”

"We remain committed to ensuring our customers and rugby fans around the world have accurate, timely, informed and independent news and coverage.

The right to report independently and without constraint on world events, sporting or otherwise, is pivotal to the all that is upheld by the world's free press. The Media Coalition does not want to impinge on the rights of TV broadcasters and we have made that plain to the IRB. The coalition simply rejects in principle the idea that any event organiser should be able to limit editorial freedom to choose how, where and what to publish. Furthermore, this stipulation is unworkable in reality because agencies do not have and do not seek the right to control the editorial decisions of their clients.

'Far from wanting to impede the "lifeblood of international rugby," as the IRB charges, we wish our own role in ensuring the free flow of information from the event to be acknowledged and allowed to continue, unhindered by unfair and unworkable restrictions."

For more: Mail & Guardian Online: IRB digs in over tournament media row