Officials of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Friday attempted to assure the media that a dispute over some of the coverage policies for the inaugural T20 tournament would be resolved soon.

All the contentious clauses are regarding the use of photographs during the event starting on April 18.

The IPL’s media accreditation terms say that they will be “entitled to use and reproduce, free of charge, worldwide and without limit in time any and all photographs/images captured” by the accredited media. There are further issues over the photographs not being used “in association with any marks, names or logos of any third party (commercial or otherwise)” and over a restriction on any online use without the prior written consent of the IPL.

Strong reactions

A number of media organisations raised objections to these clauses, and the Editors’ Guild of India, in a letter to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sharad Pawar, said the clauses were “unprecedented and unacceptable to the Indian media, to say the least”.

“Indirectly, it is making a claim on the images taken by the media organisations as a property of the IPL. To say the least, this is a ridiculous claim, unheard of in the annals of free India’s media tradition. The IPL is even making a claim on the said property for future use,” the letter said.

The Sports Journalists’ Federation of India also wrote to Pawar, asking for these “unfair and unethical restrictions” to be “withdrawn unconditionally”.

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