The Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) and the Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI) "failed" to resolve a copyright row involving the Olympic rings logo which "has put the country's hosting of the 2018 Asian Games in jeopardy," according to Patrick Johnston of REUTERS.
The IOC told the Indonesian government last month it "faced a ban unless KONI stopped using the Olympic rings in its logo," saying only its member, KOI, "was allowed to do so."
KOI "used to be a part of KONI but the two split a decade ago." Monday's meeting in Jakarta between the two bodies and senior government officials "failed to find a solution," with KONI Chair Tono Suratman refusing to give up the logo.
Suratman: "In the meeting, we discovered that the Olympic Charter provides opportunity for non-governmental organizations to become members of the IOC. So, for now we will retain the Olympic rings in our logo as we are not ready to talk about dropping the rings" (REUTERS, 2/18).
TAKING A GOOD LOOK: The AP's Stephen Wilson reported IOC officials "concluded their inspection of Almaty's bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics on Wednesday," saying they "were impressed with the Kazakh city's venues and satisfied with the government's assurances on human rights." Almaty is competing against Beijing "in a race that was reduced to two candidates after the withdrawal of four bidders because of financial and political concerns" (AP, 2/18).
