The Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) and the Organizing Committee of the XV Pan American Games Rio 2007 (CO-Rio) have announced that Internet media will not have rights to produce or live broadcast their own content - including video and audio - captured in official areas of the event, which will take place from July 13 to July 29, in Rio de Janeiro.

The committee's marketing director, Leonardo Gryner, said the restrictions intend to protect the interests of TV media:

"CO-Rio's concern is to respect the broadcasting rights contracts signed with the Brazilian TV broadcasters, which will guarantee the reach of an wide audience with the distribution of its production during the Games."

Despite the recognition given to Internet "as an important media for communication and promotion of sports", CO-Rio is imposing strong restrictions: Internet media won't be allowed to present any story or news featuring photos/images of the competition, exclusive interviews; not even trainings in official locations.

The only resources the committee will be offering for the websites, will be archives for download from the official website of CO-Rio, free of charge. The catch? The content can become available on-line only after a waiting period of six hours, once the competition is finished. The sites will have access to 15 minutes of daily summaries with images.

Of course, what that means is the Internet user won't be able to watch or follow the Games on line.

But that's not all.

The committee is also forbidding the participating athletes to maintain blogs, flogs and videologs during the Games. Even personal sites will require authorization to be updated.

An official note was sent on December to the Brazilian confederations, with restrictions for the participants. Major limitations are about Internet:

"No athlete and/or official of the Brazilian Delegation for the XV Pan American Games Rio 2007 can act as reporter/journalist, producing texts or researches for editorial purposes, sending journals or on-line diaries to websites, during the XV Pan American Games."

The official note is signed by Carlos Arthur Nuzman, president of the COB and the CO-Rio. In another official note sent to the UOL Esportes website, the COB said the restrictions follow the recommendations of the Pan American Sports Organization (Odepa) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Among the "bloggers/athletes" are Kaio Márcio and Joanna Maranhão (swimming), João Derly and Flávio Canto (judo), and Ricardo Winicki, a.k.a Bimba (sailing). They will not be allowed to update their blogs, nor post photos or images from the competition. These athletes are under contract with Oi, mobile phone company, sponsor of the Games. Even so, they will be unable to update the sites.

I don't like this. Specially regarding the blogs. I mean, they could have imposed limitations for the kind of information disclosed or published by the athletes, but this is a total prohibition. I don't understand how they can forbid someone to update a personal website.

And I'm not the only one who think they've gone too far. The Abranet (Brazilian ISP's Association) said this decision is "unacceptable". The six hour delay imposed on the image broadcasting for Internet is "exaggerated", according to Abranet's president, Antonio Tavares.

Sources (in Portuguese):

COB censura blogs no Pan
COB proíbe transmissão ao vivo dos Jogos Pan-Americanos pela Internet
Transmissão de imagens dos XV Jogos Pan-americanos Rio 2007 (official note from CO-Rio)

More info: XV Pan American Games Rio 2007 - Official Website - English Version