NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Ministry has not been able to make any headway in resolving the crisis over the banning of television news channels from covering the India-Sri Lanka finals at Mumbai on Saturday.
Sources in the Ministry said despite I&B minister Ambika Soni speaking with ICC president and Union Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar over the issue no positive response seems to have come from the cricketing body.
The ICC is understood to have told her that since Doordarshan has access to the footage, there was no problem in airing the match for Indian people.
The news media was allowed inside the venue at Mohali after the Minister signed an undertaking that the issue would be resolved in a meeting later. The said meeting was held on Thursday but the two sides could not reach a compromise.
"They (ICC) have asked us to sign an undertaking saying that the footage will not be commercialised which is not right," Annie Joseph, Secretary General of News Broadcasters Association, said.
She said that the channels were following the News Access Guidelines for T-20 and one-day matches adding that "if the ICC had an issue they should have come before and not before the semifinals".
The news channels were allowed to cover the world cup semifinals between India and Pakistan after ICC lifted the ban on accredited journalists from the news channels for a day following intervention by Soni.
Another body, the Broadcast Editors' Association (BEA) on Friday said the decision of ICC to withdraw the accreditation of journalists covering Cricket World Cup matches is not only against this interest but also in contravention of the rights of the citizens to be informed.
"We tried our best to make the ICC understand this but the recalcitrant attitude of the latter rendered our efforts sterile in the past three days," he said.
Sources in the Ministry said despite I&B minister Ambika Soni speaking with ICC president and Union Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar over the issue no positive response seems to have come from the cricketing body.
The ICC is understood to have told her that since Doordarshan has access to the footage, there was no problem in airing the match for Indian people.
The news media was allowed inside the venue at Mohali after the Minister signed an undertaking that the issue would be resolved in a meeting later. The said meeting was held on Thursday but the two sides could not reach a compromise.
"They (ICC) have asked us to sign an undertaking saying that the footage will not be commercialised which is not right," Annie Joseph, Secretary General of News Broadcasters Association, said.
She said that the channels were following the News Access Guidelines for T-20 and one-day matches adding that "if the ICC had an issue they should have come before and not before the semifinals".
The news channels were allowed to cover the world cup semifinals between India and Pakistan after ICC lifted the ban on accredited journalists from the news channels for a day following intervention by Soni.
Another body, the Broadcast Editors' Association (BEA) on Friday said the decision of ICC to withdraw the accreditation of journalists covering Cricket World Cup matches is not only against this interest but also in contravention of the rights of the citizens to be informed.
"We tried our best to make the ICC understand this but the recalcitrant attitude of the latter rendered our efforts sterile in the past three days," he said.
