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Nine in Commonwealth Games suspension

Updated: Nine ban to stay in place until at least Thursday.

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The Nine Network has had its accreditation for the Commonwealth Games suspended indefinitely after embarrassingly screening part of the Opening Ceremony rehearsal on Nine News.

Nine screened mobile phone footage of the rehearsal on Sunday night, it was it is now calling an “error.”

“GOLDOC has informed Nine Network Australia that their GC2018 media accreditation has been suspended until further notice,” a statement from organisers reads.

“Channel 9 News broadcast footage of Saturday night’s Opening Ceremony dress rehearsal, which breached News Access Rules and accepted industry conventions regarding confidentiality of Games ceremonial rehearsals.

“GOLDOC expects all media organisations to abide by the agreed rules.”

A Nine spokesperson told TV Tonight, “An error was made in our News last night, we are in discussions with the Commonwealth Games authorities to restore our accreditation and hope to have the situation resolved asap.”

The suspension comes just two weeks after Nine ‘s political reporter Chris Uhlmann was banned by Parliament for 1 week after cameras used a shot of Michaelia Cash texting staffers about media scrutiny. Nine’s use was described by the Senate’s Usher of the Black Rod, as a “particularly egregious breach of the rules”.

Delta Goodrem has been confirmed to perform, rumoured to be in a duet with Olivia Newton-John whilst Dami Im is also speculated to perform.

Updated: Fairfax reports Nine is banned until at least Thursday, impacting Main Press Centre access where daily briefings are held. 

Gold Coast 2018 chief executive Mark Peters said, “That’s not what dignity’s about, that’s not what trust is about and they broke those news access rules.”

Further Update: Accreditation resumed at 8am Thursday.

Source: Gold Coast Bulletin

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  2. According to some reports there are still over 100,000 tickets available for the Commonwealth Games. I’d suggest organisers should be inviting the media at every opportunity to promote the games, not banning them. Okay, so 7 has the rights. Big whoop. And why is it Australia seems to hold these games every other year?

    1. Frustratingly, they issued a slew of new tickets about three weeks ago, after the most popular events had been listed as completely sold out for months. By that stage, though, most people had already made their travel plans, so I’m not surprised that there are still some tickets available (I doubt there would be 100 000, though). Australia hosting the games “every other year” is a slight exaggeration – they’ve been held in Australia a grand total of 5 times since 1938 (1938, 1962, 1982, 2006 and 2018). It’s just your perception that they’re held here so often (it’s been 12 years since they were held in Melbourne). I think it’s deplorable that Nine ignored the strict media embargo and aired the footage. It shows a complete lack of respect and regard for protocol.

      1. I stand corrected on the number of tickets (thank you!) – their release strategy was flawed. I missed out on tickets for the swimming during the original ballot and I see that even today, there are tickets available to the event that was listed as sold out until very recently. I’ve already made other plans for that date. I know many others would be in the same position. There’s an online report about there only be expensive tickets left for the Opening Ceremony (the article implies that they haven’t managed to sell out the event because people snapped up the cheaper seats). Again, this ignores the fact that the event was listed a sold out until very recently (last month). We won’t be seeing footage of a half empty stadium tonight – there are small pockets of tickets left available, but it’s not the disaster some are portraying it to be (I’m not referring to you, simmo3!).

  4. Too much….do the wrong thing…these days…..anywhere…anyone…and blow it off with an apology, thinking that will sort everything…..It is getting monotonous and annoying…

  5. I was watching this and I thought at the time that it was strange they were showing it. Looked like a phone camera to me from up in the rafters.

  6. Despite the pettiness that goes on with seven and nine and their news ‘exclusives’ and ‘first ons’ for the most part they do respect each others sporting rights. So, you’d imagine this was a genuine error on the part of whatever editor drew the short straw and had to work Easter Sunday.

  8. Didn’t see it. Did they have “exclusive” branded all over the footage?

    Error indeed. Error of judgement that seems to be the standard response nowadays – thought we would get away with it, so we did it. Sound familiar?

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