In October last year, Greek sports editor Philippos Syrigos of the Athens daily Eleftherotypia was brutally attacked when he left a radio station after a radio show. Thanks to emergency surgery Philippos Syrigos survived and in November he will attend Play the Game 2005 to talk about the price of reporting the dark side of sport.

At the conference in November, Play the Game will present the results of the most wide-ranging survey of sports coverage ever undertaken. Academics and journalists from nine different countries have been analysing national and regional newspapers to contribute data to the survey.

The study concludes that sports sections of America’s newspapers are a passive and reactive space dominated by game previews and recaps with little room for enterprise reportage.

Knowledge bank: The head of BBC's Sports Online site tells about the perspectives of sports journalism on the net.

Knowledge bank: Human Rights and Olympic Games: should we boycott Beijing 2003

Knowledge bank: Are African sportsmen, women, administrators, and other stakeholders in the sports industry ready for critical journalists, asks the award-winning Nigerian journalist, Olukayode Thomas. Read the fascinating account of his own experiences as a critical sports journalist for various Nigerian newspapers and make your own decision.

Knowledge Bank: Aidan White, Secretary General of the International Federation of Journalists, points out the complicity of the media in producing bad sports journalism. The degree of economic interdependence between media and the world of sports whether through advertising, sponsorship or negotiation of television rights has led to complacency and worse in the editorial approach to sports reporting.

Knowledge bank: I am going to talk about problems I see in sports media. My point of reference is American sport and sport media.