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IOC to Allow Internet Journalists to Cover Salt Lake Games
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided to let some Internet journalists to cover the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City of the United States.
Announcing the decision today in its headquarters in the Swiss city of Lausanne, the IOC said that only a limited number of Internet organizations would be allowed to cover the Salt Lake Games.
This first experience will be evaluated following the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in the context of the impact on future Olympic Games, the IOC said.
According to the IOC, no moving images or audio taken from within Olympic venues will be permitted in order to respect existing contractual relationships between the IOC and various television and radio rights holders.
The IOC is studying whether an Internet news access provision for video can be developed. It is not yet clear whether this will be applicable for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
Access to Olympic venues is designed as an opportunity for Internet journalists to produce some original text and content. Like the television and written press, accredited new media organizations will have to agree to specific IOC guidelines as part of the accreditation process, the IOC pointed out.
To be eligible for accreditation to the Salt Lake Games, the IOC said, an Internet organization must: Be fully independent from traditional media organizations already accredited at the Games, whether a newspaper or broadcaster. Internet organizations associated with a traditional media organization which already receives accreditations from the IOC should obtain their accreditations from that organizations existing quota as was the case for recent Games; Have an established track record of developing original sports-related content. Web sites will be judged by the percentage of original content to content obtained through other sources (e.g. news agencies). Web sites which depend solely on other sources for news will not be considered; Employ some full-time journalists; Have a measurable number of unique visitors as confirmed by an independent and recognized auditing firm. Sites will be judged by their multi-national reach and/or penetration in a particular country.
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