An article by Christian Sylt in CityAM revealed that F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone "is planning to take over media
accreditation for Formula One races to put the brakes on the
proliferation of online media in the paddock," according to PIT PASS. Some members of the media "are part-time at best and even
have largely commercial, rather than editorial, roles." Both "are blatant
breaches of the accreditation criteria of the FIA and it is fuelling
Ecclestone's desire to take back online media accreditation," which
Formula One Management previously controlled around a decade ago. Ecclestone: "We
will probably take over media accreditation. We always used to do it
and now we don't. I'm going to have a good look at it." The
news "sent out waves of concern as some speculated that Ecclestone may
decide to charge journalists for media access and could remove the
credentials of anyone who writes pieces which are overly aggressive or
critical of F1." Ecclestone's ire centers on clause 3.2 of the F1 media accreditation criteria which refers to websites and states that "the representative journalist
must be (i) a full time professional journalist with a national press
card (or equivalent)." Ecclestone said that "the current measures are not
stringent enough." Ecclestone: "Choose your race for free, enter the paddock,
meet the drivers. How do you do it? Set up a website. I'm going to have a
good look at the accreditation because it is a bit of a joke" (PIT PASS, 11/19).
