IOC and AOC allow Australian Olympic athletes to blog

This is one of those stories that seem ridiculous to passionate bloggers yet illustrate the techno-legal and techno-corporate time gap that the use of new media tools such as blogs face within institutions like the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and large media companies.

For those unaware, the IOC and therefore all of the national committees in participating countries had previously not allowed any athletes competing during the Olympics to publish a blog.

Last year the IOC were reviewing this policy :

Competing athletes are specifically prevented from working as journalists during the Games and have so far been strictly denied rights to continue writing internet columns during the event.

But Olympic sources said yesterday that the IOC was set to make the shift as it realised it had to recognise the dramatic expansion of the internet in the daily lives of athletes. The IOC is also keen to expand the appeal of the Olympics to the youth market.
via The Australian July 26, 2007

On Friday last week a small step to further the legitimacy and adoption of blogging was taken thanks to the IOC’s decision to allow athletes to blog at the Beijing Olympics.

The Beijing Olympics are set to become the “blog Games” after Australian athletes were given the green light to express their views for the first time in internet blogs they write during the Olympics.
via The Australian February 18, 2008

However, it is not a free for all with the IOC keen to protect broadcast rights holders as well as sports betting companies who combined contribute billions of dollars in revenue. Which is why athletes will be restricted in not being allowed to upload audio or video as well as not mention any confidential information on third parties.

Also, just because the IOC has approved it not all countries have allowed their athletes to maintain a blog during the Games. New Zealand is one which has not yet dropped the blogging restrictions.

What has caused most discussion amongst bloggers is the how the IOC has separated blogging from journalism.

Under the new rules, blogs are allowed as long as they are used for personal expression and not journalism, meaning “it be confined solely to their own personal Olympic-related experience”.
via paidContent.org

This is one of those pointless infinite loop symantic arguments about blogging/journalism that I generally roll my eyes at and avoid. I will say that even though I think the statement by the IOC is mostly PR spin to not scare and annoy their media overlords, there is some truth to it. I know this will miff many of bloggers but I agree that the athletes in this circumstance would be more bloggers than journalists. Even though I do believe the lines of journalist and blogger have blurred and that with the tools we have now anyone can be a journalist and it is almost built in as part of being a human being in the 21st century. I just see that the athletes will be posting more about themselves than reporting in the greater context of events during the games. It’s all purely speculation. Lets wait and see what is published on the blogs by the athletes before we detemine wether they are bloggers or journalists.

My biggest thought is how the IOC and the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) here in Australia is going to allow athletes to blog: as individuals or only as part of an official platform?

Laurel Papworth also alludes to the same question:

Blogging as a “legitimate form of personal expression” and “not a form of journalism.” I wonder if they are capturing the blogs under one blog banner, or if they are free to wander off to blogspot and wordpress and other personal sites? If they do it under a banner, it’s not really a “legitimate form of personal expression” then is it? It’s a “form of marketing”.
via SilkCharm

There is only one Australian Olympic athlete that I know of who is currently blogging(wouldn’t you know that I can’t find his blog now when I need it). He is a sailor who has been blogging during the lead up to the games about his qualifying trials. I will update this post with the URL when I find it.

I know that this is being viewed by the blogosphere as not open enough. But quite frankly, if the IOC allowed anymore than they have, some of the officials and broadcasters’ heads would have exploded. The IOC is a massive old bureaucracy so I think this is a great first step by them to embrace new personal publishing technologies and put blogs firmly in the world’s spotlight this August. Let the blogs begin!

A couple of other news articles about this story:
Australian IT - Blog away, AOC tells Olympians
ZDNet - Aussie Olympian blogs muzzled, not censored
ABC - Australia will not gag Beijing blogs: AOC