News agencies boycott Rugby World Cup

ladislavb writes: "Rugby World Cup, the world's third largest sporting event, kicks off today in France. On the eve of the 6-week long tournament, five major news agencies, including Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press, have announced a 24-hour boycott of the event. The reason? They protest against the drastic restrictions, imposed by the International Rugby Board (IRB), on the number of photographs news agencies are allowed to transmit. Set to just 40 per each completed match, this is in sharp contrast with other big sporting events, such as Olympic Games, where news agencies are allowed to transmit one photograph per second. AFP chairman Pierre Louette explained the reason for embarking on the boycott: "This matter underlines the desire by some organisers to have almost complete control, even if this is to the detriment of real freedom to inform. The drastic restriction on the number of photos that our clients can use on the Internet — even if the IRB has changed the figure a little from 10 to 40 — is still unacceptable.""