By Les Tan/Red Sports
Other photographers were let in but not the Red Crew. (Photo 1 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
One of the Red Crew was enthusiastic about covering the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) Schools Relay Championships this weekend. At Red Sports, crew members suggest their preferred events and then make the time and effort to go down to the event.
So you can imagine my shock when the phone rang this afternoon and a crew member said: “Uncle Les, they are telling us to get out.”
Koh Yizhe, one of our photographers, was told to leave the competition area by a track official who intimated that the event was exclusive to SPH.
When I spoke to Yizhe over the phone, I suggested he clarify again with another official. Maybe he misheard, I thought.
However, the second official, Mr Lim Jit Kee, the Events/Marketing Director of the Singapore Athletics Association, told him and another crew member, our writer Alethia Tiang:
“You can cover but only from that area (gestures to the spectator stands area). No one is allowed in the competition area. By right you have to ask for permission. Because it’s by SPH, they have their own photographers everywhere. It's nothing to do with copyright. I don't know anything about copyright. But for this event, you can only take from the side. I'm sorry. I don’t care if you’re taking notes or whatever.”
Yesterday, another Red Crew photographer, Lai Jun Wei, was told:
“Cameraman… one more time I call you, you get out to the other side.”
Later, other SPH photographers were allowed into the same spot from which Jun Wei was banished.
This is demoralising.
We are trying to cover our nation’s young talents and we are getting shut out. All we need is to be told where photographers are allowed and we will happily shoot from those positions.
But to be banished from shooting track side, is unfair.
We were told that we could not shoot from the field but this photographer could. (Photo 2 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
We were chased away from this area earlier on, but other photographers could go in. (Photo 3 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
He certainly was not from SPH, yet this photographer could roam the field as he pleased. (Photo 4 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
Students with compact cameras were allowed to go that near to the track to take pictures. (Photo 5 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
(Photo 6 © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports)
More pictures in the gallery.
it’s very simple – just ask for permission. show up unanounced and it is no wonder you got chased out.
stop trying to pin blame on the organizers. all event organizers are different. so play by their rules and not insist they play by yours.
i won’t be surprised if next year, they don not let you in after this article of yours. then what will you do next? write another article for refusing you the rights to take photos?
you may have done a lot of good work promoting the local school sports scene, and lots better than our own newspapers can offer. but this behavior will not go down well with many pepole.
good luck.
At the recent cross-country championships, after we said a friendly hello to officials who told us where to stand, and we were off.
We mistakenly assumed the SPH Schools Relay was in the same category, especially when we couldn’t find any announcements about media accreditation on the SAA website.
We don’t insist on playing by our rules. We just need to know what the track officials rules specifically are – where to stand, where we can go.
We will happily comply with them.
It’s their event and they have the right to deny, allow or restrict anybody from filming, writing and/or taking photographs. That how the sports media industry work. I agree with everything that Melanie said. It is a bit childish and unprofessional for you guys to publish the article.
This is the full reply from the SPH Corp Comms:
Hi Leslie
Thank you for your interest in the SPH Schools Relay Championships 2009.
We are pleasantly surprised with redsports’ interest in our event. From past events, we do not have a media accreditation process in place because there was no need to.
To date, from what I understand, those interested to take photos would approach SAA for permission. These would include the photographers hired by the participating schools, some parents and student-supporters etc.
The current practice is that only photographers such as those from the media and those hired by SAA to take photos are allowed access to key exclusive spots such as the finish line.
We will take note of your feedback and work with SAA to put in place proper procedures to host interested media and photographers.
Once again, I appreciate your interest in our event. Thank you.
Best regards
Mr Yeo Siew Chi, Assistant Manager, Corporate Communications, Singapore Press Holdings Limited
_________________
So from the above, it was within the purview of SAA to deny or allow access and not SPH.
Again, for everyone’s information, there were no media accreditation forms for download on the SAA site. Neither were there any instructions for media accreditation, hence our assumption that the SPH Schools Relay were like other school events, where walk-in photographers are generally entertained as long as you did not interfere with proceedings.
We will of course not make that mistaken assumption next year.
Despite the hiccups on the ground, the volunteers still managed to put together the largest and widest coverage of the SPH Schools Relay in town. So my hats off to them. At the end of the day, they pulled off the story.
http://redsports.sg/2009/03/30/sph-relays-track-and-field/
Judging from the negative comments to this story, I can’t help but wonder why is it so difficult to do some good for this nation?
If you have a heart, can I recommend readers who are holding a negative reaction to this story to take a step back and consider the rationale behind this story and take a mature approach in understanding Red Sports’ position before baring your emotions?
I’m baffled by the personal attacks on Red Sports (ironically accused for being personal). Just what crime did Red Sports commit to deserve all this? How did being honest in feeling mistreated and in appealing for equal rights can turn Red Sports into a criminal?
Why is it wrong to voice out feelings of unfair treatment? Every news site has room for commentary/columns, no? So this has nothing to do with this being the real world or the lack of professionalism or immaturity as many negative comments were anchored in.
I just find it such a shame that despite the amount of education we received, we fail miserably in our EQ to understand the rationale behind a story like this — The discouragement, disappointment and disillusionment our young volunteer journalists involved were put through.
Everyone has different threshold to what unfair treatment means, more so if it involves an unnoticed sacrifice. Just because you do not see or feel the unfair treatment, it doesn’t make those involved in this incident hurt any less by how they have felt about it.
Is it rocket science to see that it does no good for Red Sports to be “targeting” at SAA or SPH through this and burn unnecessary bridges? For Red Sports to have started this site independently and voluntarily should have told you that Red Sports is more than that.
Objectively, nothing about this story is to appeal for readers to take sides or be in favour of Red Sports because as educated and intelligent readers, it takes more than 1 commentary to harness any support. If read maturely, this story is nothing more than a muse.
Why don’t we be slow to judge? A story like this (and the negative comments generated) should open eyes to how aloof our society has become that in doing basic good to contribute to this nation can instead become an ego-deflating and dignity-busting experience.
While I’m very thankful for the constructive reminders of the professional procedure a media agency should adopt in preventing a repeat episode, I believe there should always be room for comments to be accompanied with reasonable understanding and appreciation.
For journalists are as human as you are, we are not made of stone. : )
with due consideration and respect to both supporting sides of the argument, i do not believe that Redsports is crying over a case of sour grapes. they do not stand to gain from being one-sided and intentionally biased against the organisers.
perhaps it is true that the photographers in question might have overstepped some boundaries where a more experienced photographer would not have. granted. yet, from personal experience, i strongly suspect that there were no official guidelines or instructions given regarding photography and such. this was more likely left to the immediate on-scene officials, who gave out instructions based on their own, for lack of a better word, discretion, which may or may not sanctioned.
i think the article itself is fair in its reporting, and there was no ill-intentioned implying of anything whatsoever.
after all, the cause of Redsports is altruistic and voluntary- hey, the people covering the event could well be doing something else on a weekend afternoon or just spectate like a normal spectator.
james, if the same thing happened to u i think u’d be the one “crying home to mummy”. call urself a photographer.. -.- disgusting. i bet when some organiser shuts u out and u see other pple allowed to go in, u’ll be e one be crying unfair. then please rmb the words u said here..
Luckily, I chanced upon this site. Now I know why we were asked to leave the field. A kid was not allowed to shoot and called home crying to mummy. From the set of photos, I can deduce he must have pointed out to the organizer that life is unfair. Here’s an advice to the kid. Just because you did not get what you wanted, do not have the mindset of ‘if I can’t have it so shall others’.
Taking and posting these photos do not illustrate your view, ‘the point of the photographs was to show that it wasn’t clear where photographers could stand’. It only reflects your childishness. If you do not have any respect for the organizer, at least show some courtesy to fellow photographers. Do not use us to grind your axe.
There are many ways to ‘tell a Singapore sports story’. This is definitely not one of them.
it seems that saa does not seem quite keen to have the redsports team present. obviously there must have been some clashes between the 2 of you in the past. if not, why would saa be so hostile towards them? it takes 2 hands to clap.
les – judging from the earlier comments, you seem to know a sph photographer in one of the photos. so why do you have such a misleading caption? it’s an sph event so it is only natural that they have their own photographers there. maybe you should try to verify who the other photographers are – could they be hired from saa or even the schools taking part (and in most likelihood, have sought permission to be stationed where they are). wouldnt you agree that is fair?
every event is different. just because the basketball and volleyball folks welcome your presence does not mean that other event organisers also do. i restate my basic point – that it is only courteous to seek permission from the parties in charge. and not simply show up and expect them to know who you are. and when the event organisers chase you out, you cry foul when in actual fact, you are not free from blame either.
whether or not you are professional and know the rules of the game and know when you are or are not interrupting event proceedings, unless you gain the trust of the event organisers, you cannot blame them for not welcoming you or have doubts cast on you.
sorry to say this, les. some of the comments here do seem rather personal and targeted at saa, if i am not reading the sentiments wrongly. as i go thru the comments posted and some of the replies, it is increasingly obvious that the article is one-sided and might i add further, even childish, and it seems that saa or sph are not responsible.
if you want to be taken seriously at such events and be accepted as professional bona fide members of the media, then i hope you can relook at how you do things.
lest you wonder, i have no affiliation to saa nor to sph.
I think you have to distinguish between comments by readers and the position of Red Sports, Melanie. Like I mentioned before, we delete comments that are scurrilous but generally we allow as free a debate as possible. As such, some comments come through that are targeted at SAA. But it doesn’t mean I endorse them or it’s official Red Sports policy to target an NSA.
To delete comments just because they are not something we generally agree with would mean the end of any meaningful discussion on Red Sports. Red Sports would become nothing more than a glorified online newsletter.
We have no issue with SAA or any NSA for that matter. We believe that a healthy sporting Singapore scene needs strong NSAs. We have no interest in seeing NSAs fall apart.
The point of the photographs was to show that it wasn’t clear where photographers could stand, especially when the Red Sports crew were told to leave the very spot other photographers seem to be standing in. Wouldn’t you agree that is unfair?
Again, let me reiterate, it is in the interest of a track and field event to have clearly demarcated areas for photographers. That way, there is less chance for miscommunication.
With regards to permission, we accept your basic point about permission and we restate again, Melanie, that I dropped a line to SPH to say that we were sorry if we didn’t seek their permission and may have wrongly assumed that the SPH Schools Relay is a friendly event where we could go in without prior accreditation, like other school events. I am still awaiting a reply. Just for everyone’s reference, there was no obvious announcement about the procedure for media accreditation on the SAA website regarding the SPH Schools Relay Championship.
We are looking forward to the National Inter-School Track and Field Championships and to that end, we communicated with CCAB and asked for permission and they agreed we could shoot track side. We understand the drill as we have shot the inter-school championships at both the primary and secondary and JC level for the past two years.
We aren’t there to get in the way. We are there to tell a Singapore sports story. We think the story is worth telling despite the occasional hiccups along the way.
Hi Melanie, I just want to add on to what Les has said. At sporting events we usually make it a point to let the officials know we are present and seek advice on where to stand for safety reasons as well as not to disrupt the proceedings.
Like what Mr Dick Yip mentioned earlier, the officials are usually very friendly and welcoming towards us once they know what we are there for. The technical officials from the Basketball Association have been very friendly towards us, providing us with any possible assistance that we ask for. The referees from the Volleyball Association are also very accommodating, allowing us to stray further than where the spectators can stand/sit so that we can get our photos. A few have even come chat with us during intervals. Even for less covered sports like softball and water polo where the people there may not be so familiar with us, they are also very welcoming and even let us know about safety precautions and suggest zones where we can stand.
Some have even restrained unknowing people from straying in front of our cameras so that our photos are not affected!
When they highlight to us certain points to note, we will always follow them and keep out of the way. While trying to cover the sports story, I don’t think anyone of us will want to do it while disrupting the event.
hey les, thanks for running me as lead pic, hardly do get my face anywhere, proved my friends were right, i totally need a shave :p.
Personlly always nice to see you and/or your crew at sch sports events, its a great opportunity for young photogs and exposure for our young sportmen/women. Till the next one take care!
Hey Joe, when your pic went up, I was wondering whether to caption it “Joseph Nair, the Straits Times photographer”. : )
Anyway, thanks for dropping by.
See you at the next event and we’ll try not to make you the lead pic again ;p