BAN ON WRITERS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20233, 17 February 1934, Page 31 (Supplement)

BAN ON WRITERS.

Hope of Queensland Amateur Authorities. (Special to the “ Star.”) MELBOURNE, January 25. One of the items on the agenda paper for the biennial conference of the Amateur Athletic Union of Australia, to be held in Adelaide, is a notice of motion by the Queensland Amateur Athletic Association that competitors and officials be debarred from writing articles for newspapers for payment, except in their capacity as professional journalists. One of the arguments used by the Queensland authorities is that officials and athletes should not be “ tied up ” to any particular newspaper, but that news should be made available to the various newspapers. Recently the question was raised whether E. M. Davidson, the former Victorian amateur sprint champion and public schools’ champion—now sports master at Scotch College—was entitled to broadcast sport from one of the A class stations. It was ruled that there was nothing to prevent him from doing it. English Rule. Recently the English Amateur Athletic Association adopted a new rule that no active athlete should be permitted to write for the Press, lecture, or broadcast for payment unless he were a professional journalist. This in nc way affected officials. It is felt that the conference in Adelaide will probably agree with the Queensland proposal with this modification, though a member of the Queensland team said that his association was rather emphatic that the ban should apply not only to athletes but to officials. Leading amateur athletic officials said to-day that the proposed athletewriter ban—similar to that imposed by the Cricket Board of Control—was a good one, as athletes might be prone to express too much of their own personal views on sport and its administration rather than that of the governing body.