If you’re a print journalist who was planning to take instagram photos or vines at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, you can forget it because Russia authorities will kick you out of the games for daring to pull out your cellphone. via BuzzFeed
Vasily Konov, editor of RIA Novosti subsidiary R-Sport, told a seminar for sports journalists on Friday that print reporters using any sort of multimedia would be “considered a serious violation and lead to their accreditation being canceled,” multiple Russian outlets reported. Only journalists with professional equipment and special badges will be allowed to do so.
If you were hoping to capture amateur or semi-professional photos using a cellphone or compact camera, you may want to pose as a regular spectator as they will not be banned from using said equipment.
Why will print journalists be banned from using their iPhones to take photos? It’s not clear, however it appears that corruption and cronyism are running rampant in Russia (what else is new?) if this report from BuzzFeed is accurate.
Several journalists have already fallen foul of strict accreditation regulations surrounding the Olympics. Dmitry Navosha, director of the popular site Sports.ru, accused the committee of denying his correspondents accreditation in August because his site was a vastly more popular competitor to R-Sport. RIA Novosti head Svetlana Mironyuk is head of the accreditation commission, and R-Sport boss Dmitry Tugarin is a member.
Russia is obviously the ideal destination for anyone fleeing the tyranny of the United States and the first or fourteenth amendments of the Constitution.