A new voluntary code of practice was signed by the Australian sports administrative authorities and leading media groups to resolve disputes between the groups that have gone on for years. Ongoing disputes and press coverage boycotts have centred over restrictions sports administrations had created which previously blocked news agencies from covering cricket and Australian Rules Football matches, Agence France-Presse reported today.

This new code is likely the first of its kind, and ends several restrictions the sports administration had placed on the media, such as not allowing the use of sports news and images online, including the number of updates on the events and the sites allowed to use sports images. They also aimed to restrict sports coverage on mobile platforms. Many media groups believed to be the restrictions to infringe on press freedom, and those that did not agree to them were not allowed to cover certain events.

The new code offers media groups the ability to cover sports events while also assuring sports organisations that photographs or text taken at the events will not be used for any commercial purposes beyond news reporting, according to AFP.

A senate inquiry began looking into the issue last year, and involved participation from sports and media organisations around the world in a debate that eventually evolved into the drafting of the voluntary code by the media groups, sports organisations, the federal government and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The new code is a balancing act between the needs of commercialised sport with press freedom by outlining the rights and obligations of sport and media organisations, Reuters reported. A committee has been formed to administer the code, which will be headed by former Australian International Olympic Committee vice president, Kevan Gosper.

"Positions have been properly defined ... in such a way where the media is able to clearly sustain its freedom to send news and information and pictures out to the public, and the sporting organisations recognise this is in their interest," Gosper said, according to AFP. "There's been a clear definition of what is commercial (use) and what is news."

The deal was brokered by Graeme Samuel, chairman of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, The Australian reported. It guarantees publishers and agencies can produce journalism for any print or digital platform, puts an end to the number of restrictions on Web updates, removes the ban on publishing cricket reports for mobile platforms, and lifts the limitations on the number of photographs published on a Web site. The new deal also grants media organisations access to sporting events and allows them to attend press conferences held before and after the event.

Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said he supported the code, and that the Australian government had been concerned "that these breakdowns in communication would adversely affect the Australian public's traditional access to news reporting of sporting events," Reuters reported.

The leading Australian sports bodies that signed the agreement include: Cricket Australia, the Australian Football League (AFL), the Australian Rugby Union, the National Rugby League and Tennis Australia. Media groups that signed the agreement include: Agence France-Presse, Fairfax Media, News Limited, Australian Associated Press and Getty Images, AFP reported.

"This is a positive step and ends continual negotiations that increasingly restricted press freedoms in covering major sporting events. Last week, this process helped ensure photographers of AAP and Getty Images were allowed back into the Australian Football League for the first time in two years," Mark Hollands, chief executive of the Newspaper Publishers' Association, told The Australian.

The News Media Coalition, an international organistion established to protect the ability of news organisations to cover major events, welcomed the agreement.

"We trust that the code will enable this fundamental function of the independent news media to continue to operate without the fear of unnecessary or arbitrary restrictions on their operations," said Andrew Moger, the group's spokesman, according to the Canadian Press.

A similar dispute involving press freedom in the digital age has also arisen on the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket front, according to AFP.