Thursday, June 14, 2007

Live-Blogging of Sports Events Prohibited??

If you can see it on TV, why can't you talk about it?

"A Louisville Courier-Journal sports reporter had his media credential revoked and was ordered to leave the press box during an NCAA baseball super-regional because of what the NCAA alleged was a violation of its policies prohibiting live Internet updates from its championship events, the Courier-Journal reports....

Courier-Journal executive editor Bennie L. Ivory challenged the NCAA's action and said the newspaper would consider an official response, reports C-J writer Rick Bozich. "It's clearly a First Amendment issue," Ivory said. "This is part of the evolution of how we present the news to our readers. It's what we did during the Orange Bowl. It's what we did during the NCAA basketball tournament. It's what we do."...

"It's a real question that we're being deprived of our right to report within the First Amendment from a public facility," said Jon L. Fleischaker, the newspaper's attorney. "Once a player hits a home run, that's a fact. It's on TV. Everybody sees it. (The NCAA) can't copyright that fact. The blog wasn't a simulcast or a recreation of the game. It was an analysis."

Source