Another One (infringement) Bites The Dust

This week’s infringement comes in the form of censorship in athletics. No, it’s not 2008, and no, this is not Beijing. This is Southeastern Conference athletics – most notably football. According to an AP article this week, the SEC has placed a slate of restrictions on various forms of online media usage for game coverage. Banning the use of social networking sites – like Facebook and Twitter – for in-game updates seems bizarre when radio announcers are allowed to announce play-by-play details in real time. Okay, with a seven-second delay, but I digress. My guess is that those in charge don’t fully understand the internet’s role in the media today. This was probably a preemptive maneuver allowing for future censoring should a star athlete drag a fan out of the stands for a little end-zone pummeling. Should this happen, radio, television and fan tweets (fans are still allowed to use social networking sites during games) would spread the news very efficiently. So, I don’t see the reason behind added restrictions for online content other than ignorance on the part of the SEC. Luckily, the SEC relented and compromised upon receiving letters from the lawyers of four major-media groups. Without the combined power of these groups, things may have turned out differently. Just think about what might have happened if each outlet had to file its grievance independently.

So What's The Point?

Freedom of the press ensures that citizens have the ability to be well informed. Whether they are or not, we’ll leave for another discussion. In China, where they don’t have this freedom, government censors control the flow of news and editorial content. Luckily in the U.S., the First Amendment guarantees this freedom. But, citizens should not rest on their haunches, believing the amendment guarantee of this power is absolute. It is constantly under attack. Individual cases may not seem like a huge deal at the time. They may seem small or trivial, but can soon escalate. Therefore, it is the goal of this blog to inform citizens of infringements on this most-basic right in the hope that it won’t become systematically marginalized. Please feel free as good citizen journalists to e-mail me with infringements you find along the way.


Thanks,

Warren