Delegates at Play the Game today agreed to send a letter to FIFA urging it to speak up louder when journalists are threatened, attacked or penalised for trying to cover football related stories.

Delegates at Play the Game today decided to ask FIFA what action the organisation had taken when Burmese journalist Zaw Thet Htwe was sentenced to death because he published articles questioning how the Burmese Football Federation had spent money from FIFA’s Financial Assistance Programme.

The Secretary General of the International Federation of Journalists wants media organisations and journalist’s associations to recognise that safety is an issue for sports journalists too.

"Mr. Syrigos, someone tried to kill you. Do you suspect anyone?"

That was the question the Greek police asked sports editor Filippos Syrigos of the newspaper Eleftherotypia the day after he was brutally attacked by two men who hit him over the head and stabbed him several times in the back.

Sports editors of daily newspapers all over the world allow the sports industry to set the agenda and the priorities for coverage of sports events.

Knowledge bank: Sports editors of daily newspapers all over the world allow the sports industry to set the agenda and the priorities for coverage of sports events. That is the main conclusion of the International Sports Press Survey 2005 which has surveyed 10,007 articles in 37 newspapers from 10 different countries.

Greece is rapidly becoming a very dangerous place for sports journalists. On 30 September 2005, sports journalist Periklis Stellas was brutally attacked by an unknown assailant – taking the number of sports journalists attacked in Greece up to three within the past year.

“Journalism is mostly a lubricant facilitating the smooth working of the sports complex and bringing it into a rewarding relationship with world populations. Journalism is not really as aware of it as it should be and therefore we welcome Play the Game under our roof.”