The recommendations were submitted primarily in the context of the UK governments existing 2018 Gold Framework policy document (now under review) and the UK government’s intention to bid for future mega events including the FIFA World Cup 2030.
The News Media must be able to fully report on an event at the time of its staging and in order for that to be achieved their needs must be factored into planning for an event at its inception.
Proposals:
We believe the following principles should be included within the major event policies of government and support entities such as UK Sport:
General:
1. Prior to bidding, careful consideration should be given to whether primary event owners (such as international sports bodies) have policies which enable the News Media to fully report on events
2. The News Media should be regarded as stakeholders and invited to participate in planning
3. The News Media should be encouraged to innovate with newsgathering and dissemination technologies, including social media, as it exists at the time of an event
4. Hosting evaluation should consider how an event can contribute to media freedom legacies in the UK and overseas
5. News coverage and journalistic opportunities should be encouraged before and during an event to foster public interest
6. Event-enabling legislation should not undermine news-related commercial activities of the News Media (e.g, sale of publications at locations, promotion of coverage and the distribution, sale or syndication of their editorial content)
Event Media Accreditation:
1. There should be the earliest possible dialogue between event organisers and News Media representatives to shape accreditation policy, documents and processes (to enable News Media planning and engagement)
2. Media accreditation documents should acknowledge and support editorial independence and not undermine journalistic practices including freedom of expression, comment or criticism
3. The News Media should be free to share and exploit their own editorial content (without arbitrary controls on timing, format or platform)
4. The copyright ownership of news entities in their own content should be expressly acknowledged
