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Two New Zealand Newspapers Withdraw Applications For Olympic Accreditation

New Zealand’s two largest newspaper groups are not sending journalists to cover the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro "because of a dispute with domestic broadcasting rights-holder Sky TV and the New Zealand Olympic Committee over accreditation terms they say will unfairly restrict coverage," according to the AP. NZME, which owns the New Zealand Herald, and Fairfax New Zealand, which publishes newspapers including Wellington’s Dominion-Post and Christchurch Press, "have been in talks for months with Sky." Both groups on Thursday said that negotiations have "reached an impasse" and they have withdrawn applications for accreditation. The conditions in question "restrict the amount of footage used on news websites for non-rightsholders and how soon after an event that content could appear." Fairfax had "planned to send nine journalists to the Olympics and NZME was sending a similar-sized team of writers, photographers and videographers" (AP, 7/21).

'UNDULY RESTRICTIVE': The NEW ZEALAND HERALD reported New Zealand Media & Entertainment Managing Editor Shayne Currie said that "unduly restrictive" conditions imposed by Sky, which has purchased New Zealand broadcasting rights for the Games from the IOC, "had driven the decision." Currie: "This has been a difficult decision but ultimately we cannot accept what we view as unduly restrictive and unnecessary news access rules as proposed by the New Zealand rights holder, Sky Television. These do not allow for fair-use of copyright material in accordance with the New Zealand Copyright Act and have the potential to impact heavily on our ability to cover the Games in a fair and meaningful way." Sky spokesperson Kirsty Way said that the NZME and Fairfax moves were "pretty disappointing" for Kiwis. She said, "Sky stands by its news access rules that they're the most generous in the whole world and have been acceptable worldwide, but apparently they're not acceptable to our news agencies in New Zealand." Currie said that "Sky was wrong." Currie added that Sky's stance "undermined editorial freedom, the Olympic charter, and the public's right to see Games coverage." New Zealand taxpayers "invested millions of dollars in high-performance sport" (NZ HERALD, 7/21).

SURPRISE: RADIO NZ reported Way said that "she was surprised at the move by Fairfax and NZME." She said, "It looks like the key issue is access to video clips to play online and interestingly only two countries in the world, apart from New Zealand, have been given rights to screen video clips of the Olympics; and that is Australia and the U.K." She would not "reveal how much Sky had paid for the broadcast rights" but said that the cost, including sending staff and production costs, "was in the millions." Way: "We've got about a hundred people going over to Rio. They want to use the footage that we've paid dearly for to make more revenue for themselves. We have to put some boundaries on that because we've paid dearly for exclusive rights in this country" (RADIO NZ, 7/21).

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