Sports journalists must safeguard their freedom against large sporting bodies if objective coverage of sporting events is to be maintained.

That was the claim of a ground breaking forum recently held at the University of Central Lancashire entitled ‘Spoiled Sports: Will the digital media finish off sports reporting as a credible form of journalism?”

The forum saw top level media moguls debate the future of their trade. In a year which has seen large sporting organizations increasingly clash with journalists the debate was always going to be provocative and the audience was not disappointed.

The panel consisted of renowned figures from the sports journalism world- Mihir Bose, BBC Sports Editor, Phil Townsend, Director of Communications for Manchester United Football Club, Andrew Moger, leader of the Newspaper Publishers Association’s digital rights campaign and Kadambari Murali, Sports Editor for the Hindustan Times and Robert Hardie, Content Strategy Director for Associated Northcliffe Digital.

Charlie Lambert, a veteran BBC North West sports presenter and commentator, who now runs the highly-regarded sports journalism programme at UCLan, chaired the debate in front of a packed audience.

The opposing views put forward by Mihir Bose and Phil Townsend were particularly animated and served to illustrate the polarization of views between large, powerful sports organizations and journalists. It also highlighted familiar themes such as the impact of revenue from broadcasting giants such as BSkyB.

The panel vigorously debated the decline of print in journalism and how traditional media is being forced to embrace technology in a desperate bid for survival.

Kadambari Murali, the first woman sports editor of India’s largest newspaper, the Hindustan Times, disagreed with this point completely. She said “They may be in decline in the UK, but not in India. There is always space for a good story on any medium.”

Andrew Moger, a consultant who heads the Newspaper Publishers Association’s digital rights campaign, also disagreed strongly with the view that newspapers are in a freefall decline. He suggested that the condition of the print industry is robust, healthy and expanding, saying “Newspapers have constantly evolved and this process is currently speeding up to cope with the impact of the digital media.”

The most hotly contested topics of the evening were the revenue generated by image rights and the politics of sports’ governing bodies. Speakers claimed that these developments have jeopardised the industry’s ability to report on events.

Mihir Bose, BBC sports editor, argued that some clubs and sports are unfairly cashing in on the reputations of their organisations. He said: “This has become more common in the last 10-20 years. Sports governing bodies have realised that they have a product that they can sell manipulate and use to control the media. Sport is becoming more and more marketed and gone are the times when football clubs needed the written press for free publicity.”

Phil Townsend, director of communications at Manchester United, disagreed saying that clubs like Manchester United still rely on publicity from the media, but also help broadcasting companies realise their aims despite having their own in-house media.

It was agreed by all that digital media has had a huge impact in the lives of sports journalists and that all had to adapt to the changes in order to survive.

Robert Hardie, Content Strategy Director of Northcliffe Media, concluded: “Although the relationship between big sports clubs and the media remains dysfunctional, digital media has benefited the readers and they are intelligent enough to decide what is good or bad.”

More info
The Journalism Leaders Programme
Watch the debate again online

Related news
Forum to tackle influence of digital technology on sports reporting

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