Critical sports journalists should choose their words carefully when blogging about sports officials. In Germany, freelance journalist and former sports editor of the Berliner Zeitung, Jens Weinreich, has become the target of an aggressive campaign by the German Football Federation (DFB) after he described DFB president Theo Zwanziger as an “incredible demagogue” in a posting on a German sports blog.

News agencies AP, Reuters and Agence France-Presse have chosen to suspend the coverage of Australian cricket events. The news agencies feel that the terms of accreditation are limiting the freedom of press.

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) is backing a formal complaint to UEFA against the Romanian Football Federation (FRF) and its president Mircea Sandu, after the football federation allegedly encouraged footballers to throw stones at journalists and verbally abuse them.

Via www.playthegameforopenjournalism.org the International Federation of Journalists and the world communication conference Play the Game launch a helpline and a website to support thousands of foreign journalists in Beijing.

Principles of independent journalism won in the latest skirmish between sports federations and media organisations about the rights to cover sport events. The battle took place in the European Parliament where members voted on amendments to a report on the European Commission’s White Paper on Sport which could have introduced new intellectual property rights to sport events.

Sports journalists Muse Mohamed Osman and Shafici Mohyaddin Abokar, president and first vice president of the Somali Sports Press Association (SSPA) respectively, were detained by Mogadishu police officers last week and threatened with their lives.

The increasing competition newspapers are facing from developments in the communications industries are pushing some journalists to exaggerate and spin stories to sell papers and justify their jobs argues Philip Townsend, communications director for Manchester United Football Club.

A list compiled by Play the Game over journalists who have been assaulted, killed or endured legal actions for their reporting on sport clearly show that safety is an issue for sports journalists too as the many stakeholders in sport threaten journalists and freedom of expression in different ways.