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Help with restrictive sports credentialing

We wanted to let you know of two resources ASNE is offering to assist members who are facing unduly restrictive sports credentials.

Dear ASNE member:

We wanted to let you know of two resources ASNE is offering to assist members who are facing unduly restrictive sports credentials.

By now, you have probably seen, via an ASNE Member Alert sent last week or in other media, that the Southeastern Conference has issued restrictive new credentials to reporters seeking to cover SEC sports in 2009-10. ASNE joined APME and APSE in a letter sent to SEC Commissioner Mike Slive on August 19. Discussions continue between individual papers and the SEC and its member schools regarding those credentials; we are hopeful that these will result in further changes to remove the more severe provisions.

As we continue to seek common ground with the SEC, other conferences and universities have begun to issue their credentials, which are equally maddening. We have now seen credentials issued by the Big 10, Pac 10 and Big 12, as well as individual schools in those conferences, that contain provisions identical or similar to those we have seen from the SEC and from professional leagues or teams. It is impractical for ASNE and other national organizations to respond to every individual conference or university, and in many ways it is inappropriate for us to do so. Ultimately, it is up to each newsroom to decide whether it will accept a restrictive credential, reject it or negotiate more favorable terms.

Not wanting to abandon our members and, in fact, hoping that you will express your displeasure directly to a conference or institution that issues credentials that you feel you simply cannot sign, we offer our support and resources.

  • ASNE legal counsel, Kevin M. Goldberg, has compiled a list of recurring issues that appear in sports credentials.

    Reviewing this list should assist you in identifying troublesome provisions when you are presented with new credentials to cover a league or team.

  • In addition we are reprising the January webinar "Unlocking the Mystery of Sports Credentials" on Thursday, Sept. 3 from 2 p.m.-3 p.m. Eastern.

    John Cherwa of the Los Angeles Times; Tim Franklin, ASNE Freedom of Information Committee Co-Chair and the Louis A. Weil Jr. Endowed Chair at the Indiana University School of Journalism; and ASNE Legal Counsel Kevin M. Goldberg will be on hand again. This time they will joined by David Tomlin, Associate General Counsel of the Associated Press.

    (Please be sure to obtain your member coupon code for free registration. Contact ASNE if you do not know it.)

Please do not hesitate to contact us contact ASNE if you need more information.

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