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Journalists Banned From Using Smartphones At 2014 Sochi Olympics?
First time accepted submitter SlongNY writes in with a story that journalists may be banned from taking photos or videos with smartphones at the 2014 Olympics. "'Journalists using mobile phones to film athletes or spectators will be considered a serious violation and will result in cancellation of accreditation,' said Vasily Konov, head of the state-run R-Sport news agency, which controls accreditation at the games. According to Buzzfeed, Mr. Konov later denied that he had said the ban was in place. Radio Free Europe, however, also reported him as saying the same thing."
If independent footage comes out, R-sport doesn't get paid for it. Gotta have that cash.
The Olympic Committee has been pushing for YEARS that they be the sole source of any information, media or other materials originating from the events. It's only a matter of time before they ban external reporters altogether and simply provide their own press releases throughout the days from their own staffers.
Good. Let it collapse under that bullshit rule then.
Go ahead and start banning something that we struggle every four years to continue to justify from every perspective. The cities left behind in the aftermath of hosting an Olympics would certainly agree. It's far from the financial whirlwind everyone wants to believe it is.
And the only thing I'm going to be surprised over with these games is if Sochi somehow doesn't turn it into a complete clusterfuck. Between their logistical planning to the anti-gay sentiment being broadcast over these games as if it were Nazi Germany again, I don't hold much hope for success.
NBC wants it taped delayed covage to have good ratings
Having lived through the 2010 games in Vancouver, I can fully believe this story. The corporations behind the Olympics answer to no-one, and respect only the laws that they create for themselves.
Local customs and laws, charters, and regulations are ignored or flouted without so much as a "Sorry," and the great armies of renta-cops rule the roost.
Three Squirrels
It's the host country's responsibility to ensure the billions of dollars in exclusivity rights' value is not diluted via unauhorized production.
Witness UK's 00 agents neck-snapping unauthorized shop owners within 200 miles of London who put "Enjoy the Olympics!" signs in their windows.
This is, after all, a private, commercial enterprise.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
At most the host city will benefit from some upgraded infrastructure, probably long overdue, but very rarely will the host come close to recouping the cost they have put in, and a lot of the money goes to waste, meaning that if they had spend the money purely on improving their citizens live, it would have gone much further. Supporters counter this by saying that the host will get more back in the long term from business promotion and tourism, but this claim is dubious at best, but being a very hard thing to quantify it's also impossible to refute, but considering it's mostly held in cities that are already some of the most popular tourist destination and business hubs, it's hard to see what real difference is being made.
At the end of the day, the Olympics have very successfully branded themselves as a must have event, however the only ones who really benefits are the sponsors who gets a venue where a country's normal safeguards and laws are completely nullifies, the politicians who get to stand on the grandest stage of all and proclaim how awesome they are and the of course the members of IOC who gets to take home fat bribes.
Again, fuck the Olympics. The great white elephant of the modern age.
Given the ridiculous corporatism, overbearing security measures, hostility to the Internet, doping scandals, and obsessive nationalism (which was of course built in from the beginning), it seems like it has already been dead for quite a while. They are now just going through the motions.