Sport and the Challenge of Free Expression

As a former newsman whose career has reached into most corners of daily journalism, including reporting from the touchline and editing big match reports, I understand well why there is no popular movement around the world that can match the cultural richness, economic clout and political power of sport.

Sport means much to the people who play and sometimes a lot more to the audience - it inspires childhood dreams, national passions and feelings of community that help people to identify themselves in a world which is changing rapidly and in ways that are not always for the best.

Today the ability to reach global audiences through television has created a billion-dollar sports industry involving powerful multinational corporate sponsors, advertisers, the sports organisations, consumer good producers and media companies.

The globalisation of sport has created wealth for many people and institutions in the sports and media world. It is also changing the role that sport plays in society. In the quest for market shares the cultural, democratic and community values previosly synonymous with sport are steadily losing importance:

Some of the questions we must ask surround the process of commercialisation and globalisation and its impact on sports and media:

• Does it add to the concentration of power in fewer media conglomerates and has it encouraged authoritarian and exclusive sports organisations?
• Is it leading to the oppression of open public debate in the sports' world, when silence is more or less directly imposed on athletes, coaches, leaders and other agents in the sector?
• Is it creating a distorted image of sort ideals?
• Has it turned sport into a privilege for the wealthy whether on televison or at the sports ground?

Certainly as a representative of journalists, I know that many reporters feel the pressure of a powerful industry that encourages them to serve commercial imperatives rather than the public interest.

In the past few years we have many examples where the ideals of sport are being tarnished in ways that suggests sports men and women and the people who work with are under intolerable pressure to deliver success. As a result, the balance between commercial interests and the public good has been seriously disturbed.

Sport touches everyone's lives and in journalism it has posed challenges to reporters and investigative journalists. Our record as the fearless seekers after truth and as uncompromising watchdogs against corruption is not as good as many of us would like to believe. In particular we might reflect on:

• The doping scandals in many sports, such as the Tour de France, which were revealed, tellingly, by the police, and not by the sports authorities or the vast press corps.
• The failure of the extensive press coprs surrounding cricket to adequately open up the debate on bribes and money changing hands that has been laid bare by the Indian authorities and which has shaken the sports establisment in Australia, the sub-continent, England and South Africa;
• Our relutance to challenge the football administrators on the human cost of meeting contract obligations, best revealed by the revelations of how the world's leading soccer player and heroic role model for millions of youngsters, Ronaldo, was forced to play in the World Cup Final despite clear evidence of illness.

Journalists have a duty to the truth, they must be independent and they must be aware of the consequences of what they write and broadcast, but often we see these ethical obligations compromised. Freedom of expression depends upon people's confidence that they have access to information about what is going on in society. In the area of sports journalism I am worried that they do not have access to as much information as they need.

This is bizarre given that sports journalism is one of the best-organised professional groups. We have thriving federations of ski journalists, football writers, tennis reports and correspondents covering almost every other major sporting discipline.

Why is it then, that, our performance as watchdogs over the industry is such a poor one?

One reason why that it is increaslingly difficult for journalists to maintain clear water between their work and the interests of the world of sports when the two industries are converging.

The on-going purchase of major sports clubs by media entrepreneurs aiming to buy sport in order to control other markets, as shown in the global strategy of Rupert Murdoch, who owns baseball and football interests and, famously, tried to buy Manchester United for almost 1 billion dollars. The News Corporation strategy has been to buy the rights to major sporting events and to use them as a "battering ram" to open up new markets in the satellite television business. In these circumstances, journalism that reports critically on sport is not encouraged.

And media are sponsors of major sports events they sometimes compromise their journalistic responsibilities. As in Canada a few years ago when maladministration in the organisation of the Calgary Winter Olympics Games was ignored by local journalists.

Journalists who do challenge the commercial interests and the administrators get little thanks for their good work. Earlier this year at the World Sports Forum in St Moritz I was astonished to hear a senior representative of the IOC berating and blaming media for the damaging impact of the media exposure of corruption within the IOC. Here is an example of where the media and good investigative journalism carried out a valuable public service and the only response of those ultimately responsible for mismanagement is absurd allegations of bad faith on the part of journalists doing their job.

It would be foolish, then, to deny that sponsorship and globalisation of information and media resources do not provide serious and disturbing challenges.

The corporate machine increasingly dominates the national sporting scene and at the same time it brings to bear disturbing influence on media performance. Throughout Europe television networks are battling for control of exclusive rights for the national football league. Projects for pay sport television channels are being developed.

The merging of media companies, sports organisations and sponsors has led to a serious dilemma for many sports journalists who find themselves squeezed between the demands of an industry and the loyalty to serve the public interest - in a compelling, educated and unbiased manner.

Competitive sport has become a global phenomenon worth billions of dollars and in which there is ever-closer co-operation between the media, sponsors and the sports authorities. This is a lucrative business for those that control the industry, but it threatens to eradicate critical and investigative sports journalism. Today in journalism the commercial imperatives dominate our editorial philosophy far more than they have before.

As a result alternative opinions are not getting the air-time they deserve, particularly those who believe that sport is an essential part of national identidy and creativity that should not fall under the exclusive control of commercial sponsors. Formerly strong rules and regulations that ensure major sporting events have to be made accessible to the broadest possible audience through public broadcasting are under pressure.

But in a global economy unacceptable contradictions that affect us all are played out very far from home. Issues such as use of child labour in production of sports products for massive world markets are deeply troubling the international labour movement and need to be addressed.

How can sport be clean if in the name of promotion a spirit of human excellence and achievement we damage the fundamental human rights of the very young people and communities that look to sport to provide examples of heroism to which they can aspire? Everyone connected with sport, and most of all its sponsors, must set standards that are uplifting and do not diminish the lives of the world's most vulnerable groups. This is a story of crucial public interest. It should be told and retold by national media in the context of the world-wide expansions of sports.

We know, too, that the pressure on athletes to perform well to meet the expectations of sponsors and promoters is leading to unacceptable compromises with their own good health and that of the community, particularly in the use of drugs, a scourge in a world where the problem of drug taking among young people is a matter of major public concern.

So let us look at some of these problems. Is the issue of ownership itself important? Certainly it was to the fans of Manchester United who last year emphatically rejected the overtures of Mr Murdoch? But how do we restore the balance of public interest against the narrower aims of sponsors without losing the potential advantages of greater investment in sport at national level?

We must look more specifically at the current demands of sponsors and ask what is the potential impact on sport? Do we need to find new ways of working or can we reinforce existing standards and codes to help balance the relationship between sportsmen and women and sponsors of the game? How can we ensure that the audience feels the benefits of sponsorship? How do we put people first when the bottom line is defined by ratings, market share and financial reward?

Finally, I want to say a word or two about some heroes of my own. They are the few journalists who have endeavored to shine a light into the darker side of modern sport, many of whom love sport dearly. They have often run into walls of silence, non-co-operation, obstruction and intimidation by the sports world - and sometimes by their own editor. I\'m pleased to say that these days, because of the rising public concern I\'ve mentioned, an increasing number of reporters, many of them young journalists, are working for positive change in sports journalism.

Their concern is to resolve the fundamental dilemma of sponsorship and sport. How to ensure that financial gains from sports go back to the benefit of the games and not into the pockets of those who use sports merely as another means of financial speculation. If the current trend that many of them fear continues, towards sports being regarded as just another saleable media product, then we all stand to lose

The International Federation of Journalists is the world's largest organisation of journalists. It represents more than 450,000 members in over 100 countries. IFJ promotes co-ordinated international action to defend press freedom and social justice. It does not subscribe to any given political viewpoint, but promotes human rights, democracy and pluralism. The IFJ is opposed to discrimination of all kinds - and it believes in freedom of political and cultural expression, and defends trade union and other basic human rights.