The Japanese Olympic Committee is telling athletes competing at the Turin Winter Olympic Games not to write any blog posts during the Olympics because the Olympic Charter bans athletes’ journalist activities when the games are on, and violators will be disqualified.
(via TMC)
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Wait a minute, I thought the “real journalists” were always saying that bloggers are not journalists? So how can an athlete’s blog be considered journalism? If it’s commercial activity they’re worried about, then maybe the athletes have to remove all advertising from their blogs during the games?
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You might be interested to know that the Canadian Olympic Committee has decided not to include blogs in the ‘journalism’ ban, as long as the athletes write about their own experience. Of course this is an IOC rule, so there should actually be some interpretation coming down from the IOC.
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It really seems like the IOC is just trying to control what people can and can’t say. It doesn’t affect the competition. The athletes should be allowed to blog. At least that’s my take.
I think the IOC needs to adapt to the current trend… that everyone and their dog is starting to blog.
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The atheletes can always blog anonymously, right?
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That’s an interesting idea. It would be hard to hide your identity and you would have to hide forever, so the IOC doesn’t take away any medals you win.
It would be an extremely popular blog if someone did that. However, how would you know they were really an olympic athlete?