Athletes and other Olympic staff and participants with blogs and web sites have been concerned about an Olympics rule barring journalism from within. Paragraph 3 of Bye-law to Rule 49 of the Olympic Charter states that “Only those persons accredited as media may act as journalists, reporters or in any other media capacity.” The International Olympic Committee has decided to look upon blogs and web sites and personal journals, rather than journalism. This decision will allow Olympians to write about the experience as it happens.

In order to make bloggers from within the Olympian ranks fit the non-journalist mold, some restrictions have been placed on reporting of the events by Olympic participants. Namely, they can not include any new media in the articles and posts they write about the Olympics. That means that all photos, video footage and audio files will be coming from sanctioned journalists in the international media, not citizen or athlete bloggers.

I, for one, find this sad. I think being able to see real footage from the sidelines, as it happens, would be making groundbreaking history. Also, while getting to and participating in the Olympics is a major event for an athlete, it has lost some of it panache for the average viewer. The number of people who follow the Olympics on television and radio has declined over the years as the availability of the Olympics has created an aura of over exposure and sometimes even ennui in the average viewer. The Committee is certainly missing its chance to bring some panache and exposure to the aging event via the internet.

Source