Illinois high schools to sports photographers: back off
Feb 17th, 2008 by Rob
Looking for the next LeBron James? If the next up-and-coming high-school sensation happens to play for an Illinois public school, you may never spot him.
Newspapers across the state are coming out against a recent move by the Illinois High School Association to close all public high-school sporting events to press photographers—unless they sign waivers promising they won’t offer the photos for sale. The practice of selling photos to the public, according to the Illinois Press Association Foundation, is common among newspapers and has been done for years. Meanwhile, the IHSA will only grant full access to a private Wisconsin photography company, with whom it has set up an exclusive business deal.
The issue, it seems, doesn’t come down to the schools straight-up banning photographers from attending the games. Because public high-school events are supposed to be open to all, such a ban would probably be considered a restriction on free press. Rather, the decision (at least outwardly) puts limits on how the press can use these images outside the realm of news reporting. But several members of the Illinois press are saying that these new regulations are indeed overly restrictive:
“If we allow the IHSA to succeed in its attempt to dictate news and editorial policy on this issue, what’s next? We believe there are serious constitutional problems with all of this,” said David Bennett, executive director of the Illinois Press Association. “It’s important for newspapers to understand the stakes go beyond the immediate issue of covering a single championship sporting event.”
The issue could be resolved with a new bill currently being considered by the state legislature. House Bill 4582, introduced in late January, would require that
“no public elementary or public secondary school in [Illinois] nor any association or other entity that sponsors, regulates, or in any manner provides for interscholastic athletic, academic, or other form of competition among schools and students within this state may infringe upon or attempt to regulate in any manner the dissemination of news or the use of visual images by the news media of interscholastic athletic, academic, or other form of competition among schools an students within this state.”
Media access to public school events has been debated in other cities as well, including Baltimore, where a local radio station recently won a settlement guaranteeing them access to football press boxes.
