Courtesy: Stabroek News

Mending fences

Futsal promoters and Stabroek Sport reps meet following media abuse

Saturday, September 8th 2007

If hindsight is indeed 20/20 then the vision of English/Kashif and Shanghai, promoters of the just concluded Futsal tournament is just about perfect right now.

The trio met with representatives of Stabroek Sport to offer a mea culpa on an incident which occurred at the final of the Futsal competition when Frank 'English' Parris verbally abused two Stabroek Sport staff covering the event for taking a photograph of broken bottles on the playing area.

The promoters expressed regret at the outburst calling it unfortunate and in the heat of the moment and gave a verbal commitment to respect the role of the media to report any incident be it favourable or unfavourable to the promoters.

Parris said the outburst was born of frustration at expending much time and resources in making the security aspect of the tournament optimal and then possibly seeing it "go up in smoke with one thrown bottle ."

He added that he was not trying to justify the outburst but was merely explaining its genesis. Kashif Mohammed though supportive of his business associate, condemned the action of berating media operatives in the exercise of their duties pointing to the long and fruitful working relationship the Kashif and Shanghai Organization shared with the media.

Though the incident might have been a catalyst for the meeting, the two sides explored the broader issue of the relationship between the media and sport with all agreeing that media should be left to do its job without the interference of anyone. Mohammed reiterated his hope that the media and sport promoters as a whole share a good working relationship that should ultimately redound to the benefit of sport in general.

The Stabroek Sport representatives, while making the point that they could not speak for the media as a whole, took the opportunity to express the view that media have an important role to play in society and should be free to do so without fear of abuse or recrimination and that any transgression of media freedom will not be lightly dealt with.

The Guyana Press Association had expressed solidarity with the Stabroek Sport employees and condemned the incident as abusive.

The Stabroek Sport Department also explained that there was no ill will harboured from the incident and that fair and factual coverage will continue to be provided to all sport promoters in the interest of sport and overall development of this country.

Overall, the meeting was a good opportunity for both sides to understand the roles and pressures of each other and in the end the outcome was a firm commitment to mutual respect which should be beneficial to all.



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com