A legal fellow from the Student Press Law Center writes that reporting on college sports is becoming more difficult and cites the recent case at the University of Kentucky where a media relations administrator banned the student newspaper from an important media event for the basketball team. The administrator was punishing the newspaper for the actions of a reporter who contacted two varsity basketball players for an interview without permission. The administrator also said this summer that a media seat at basketball games would be vacant since a CBSSports.com reporter had criticized the school’s recruitment of a player.
For MediaShift Rob Arcamona argues, “According to several courts, state officials may not prohibit one reporter from obtaining access to an event because he or she is particularly critical of the event being covered. Such discrimination is ‘content based,’ and thereby presumptively against the very foundation of our First Amendment.” -db
From a commentary in MediaShift, September 28, 2011, by Rob Arcamona.