Uefa Denies Euro 2008 TV Censorship
UEFA has denied allegations that it censored domestic TV coverage from the Euro 2008 tournament by not screening crowd trouble during the match between Austria and Croatia.
UEFA issued a statement saying it was ‘astonished’ by the allegations made by the head of Switzerland’s national broadcasting authority, SRG.
The governing body stated that there is a full discussion of the international coverage with the television partners on a daily basis. The editorial directives for the match coverage at EURO 2008 recommend showing football action above all else, but they give no editorial censorship guidelines, and they have been openly shared with all the rights holding broadcasters.
The UEFA statement read: ‘Broadcasters have a permanent access to a vast choice of images which cover a large number of angles of any particular moment, thanks to the “feed concept” delivering up to 10 feeds and also allowing access to images from the large number of cameras in place.
‘In the Austria – Croatia match, the director made the choice to continue showing the action on the pitch rather than interrupt it with any other images. This decision was also the one of all broadcasters who were present, and all the broadcasters who had access to the feeds.
‘UEFA does not dictate to any broadcaster an editorial policy, but on the contrary, allows broadcast partners all the means possible to access a high level of production that allows each broadcaster to adapt its transmission according to its own needs.’
