LAUSANNE, June 10, 2021 – The coronavirus pandemic has made gaining access to events become more complicated than ever, particularly for sports journalists, who have the huge and significant responsibility of conveying the events to the public. On the eve of the Euro 2020, one of the biggest events to be staged amid the pandemic, AIPS mentor Keir Radnedge gave an outline of the complexities of the competition’s media operations, having been “fortunate enough” to even get an accreditation in the first place – considering that press attendance has been reduced. 

A PROBLEMATIC SYSTEM However, an accreditation confirmation is just the beginning of a long and tedious process that leads to the media tribune in the stadium. “Getting accredited still doesn’t mean you are going to the matches,” Radnedge noted, as he took participants of the last AIPS e-College English-speaking countries session, held on June 10, through the exhausting stages, which includes filling an Epidemiological Acknowledgment Form at least ten minutes before accessing the venue for each matchday. “I can imagine there will be quite a number of colleagues that will be left arguing, outside, because, unfortunately, this happens a lot, they do not read all small print.” 

Under the present circumstances, journalists are having to put up with the “interesting and complicated system”, which Radnedge described as going down the rabbit hole, but there is a major concern: “Unfortunately, I think once the pandemic has subsided, these systems will not subside so simply.” 

AN IMPORTANT FIGHT AIPS President Gianni Merlo stressed that the association is already working towards ensuring that sports organisations restore normalcy post-COVID. “For now, with COVID around, they have a good excuse to cut us off from the stadium, and the fight to return to how things were done pre-COVID will not be easy.” He, however, added that it is important that everyone joins in the fight, so as to prevent sports bodies from taking absolute control of what kind of questions should be asked or what kind of stories should be told. 

During the EuroStart event organised by the Italian Sports Press Union (USSI) and AIPS in Rome, Merlo said he passed this crucial message across to the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and got a positive feedback. “Because we have to defend our complete independence. When we lose independence, we lose everything,” Merlo emphasised. 

TV OR BEING ON-SITE With virtual press conferences and mixed zones becoming the order of the day, some of the participants wondered if there is a difference between covering an event from home and being on-site. “I think the point for all of you who have worked in live press conferences and media zones is that you sometimes have the opportunity to get to know the athletes a little bit better – eye-to-eye, face-to-face, person-to-person, It's very different when you are actually at the event. When you taste, if you like, the atmosphere and have a different understanding of what is happening, compared to what you actually see on the screen, particularly because in some countries, a lot of the television directors like to get the close-range shots of individual players, rather than the full spread of the match,” Radnedge explained. 

MORE COMPLETE Merlo added: “Staying in the stadium you can see the body language of some situation that television cannot give to you. When you are in the press tribune, you have one more possibility of collecting information of some champions that are coming out suddenly from a colleague of his country. So, your work is more complete, because you are part of a group of journalists. Even in the mixed zone, while you are waiting for an athlete there is a lot of exchange of opinion with different journalists of many different countries. If you watch on television, you can see only what the screen is gives to you, and sometimes it’s what the federation wants you to see.” 

AIPS YOUNG REPORTERS PROGRAMME The AIPS President is hopeful that the AIPS Young Reporters Programme will return to the field soon so that participants can gain hands-on experience in covering sports events while also benefitting from the lectures of AIPS mentors. 

GLOBALISATION The AIPS e-College was created in 2020 as an online version of the young reporters programme amid a pandemic that forced everyone to stay at home for months. And Merlo appreciated the participants and mentors for making the second edition a huge success. “I’m very proud of what we have built together,” he said. “We have engaged in a kind of globalisation because now you have friends around the world and you can contact them to get the right information from their countries.” 

Radnedge also expressed his gratitude to the participants for their contributions throughout the six-week course. “I think it has been a very rewarding course for all of us,” he said. 

THE REAL JOURNALIST In response to a question about whether the use of robots will reduce the value of journalists, Radnedge said: “I think the real journalist, the journalist who wants to concentrate on explanation, insight, understanding, perception, and transmitting knowledge and education, almost, as well as entertainment to our readers, viewers, listeners, is always going to be important. Robots and content fillers can only do so much. They can provide the wall in the background but it’s only the real journalists who can hang the masterpiece on the wall.”