After the London Telegraph's north-east football correspondent, Luke Edwards, reported that EPL side Newcastle's dressing room "was in disarray," his punishment was a ban from St. James' Park until the following season, according to Kevin Rawlinson of the London GUARDIAN. Newcastle is "by no means the only club in British football to ban a journalist or a whole news outlet in recent years." Earlier this month, League One side Swindon Town decided it would "no longer allow any news outlets that they did not have a commercial deal with into press conferences." Instead, Swindon Town Owner Lee Power said that interviews will be conducted by its own "in-house journalist." Power said that the new approach will "engage the fans and give them more of
an insight into how the team and the club is run" than stories written
by someone from outside. Edwards said, "Because they have their own websites and sometimes even their own television channels, clubs ... are coming to see [papers] as commercial rivals. They want to direct fans to their own websites and apps because they want to make more money from the advertising. ... Some clubs are even calling their press officers 'in-house journalists.' They are not journalists, they are marketing or PR staff." Media bans "are nothing new." But University of Kent journalism professor Tim Luckhurst said that they are "becoming more common, driven by technological advances" making it easier for organizations and individuals to become publishers. He said, "What you are seeing at football clubs is becoming an ever greater problem in the media world. Part of it is because technology allows people to produce things that they think look like journalism. People think that all you need is the ability to write words and use a camera and a microphone. The notion that there might be some ethics behind this is genuinely alien to some people." The Football Supporters' Federation said that fans "lose out when clubs ban local media," calling the issue "worrying." An FSF spokesperson said, "When access to players or club officials is dependent upon money or a guarantee of favorable reporting, it stops those in power from having to face independent scrutiny" (GUARDIAN, 7/26).
