August 07, 2008	Thursday	Sha’aban 4, 1429

BEIJING, Aug 6: Australian broadcaster Channel 9 has been banned from the Beijing Olympics common area for a week after breaching filming restrictions, the International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday.

Channel 9, which does not have broadcasting rights to the Games, was caught filming inside Olympic sports venues and was reported to the IOC by the Australian rights holder Channel 7.

“The IOC has taken action against what was, in our view, a serious breach of the news access rules,” IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies said in a statement on Wednesday.

Non-rights holders, referred to as “ENRs” by Olympic organisers, are not allowed inside venues.

“The Nine Network ENR crew will not be issued Olympic Green Common Domain filming passes and will not be permitted to enter the Olympic Green Common Domain with equipment. This sanction is effective immediately and will end at 2400hrs on Aug 13.”

Channel 9, which will be the rights holder for the 2012 London Games, apologised for the incident and did not air the footage it had shot inside the Water Cube, as the swimming centre for the Beijing Games is known.

It was not clear if all Channel 9 ENR crews were banned or just the one that violated the filming restrictions.—Reuters