London 2012 Olympics: Government and Boris should lobby IOC for more British media passes

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has taken umbrage at the lack of local newspaper journalists with accreditation for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

This week, when the International Olympic Committee is in London for its penultimate inspection of the Olympic planning process, Johnson will, hopefully, lobby the Lausanne-based mandarins for more media access.

At the moment the numbers of British print journalists and photographers given accreditation to cover the London Olympics is 530.  That number includes the 90 journalists and photographers from the Press Association, which is committed to providing all of the regional and local newspapers with  extensive coverage.

If we break it down further, the number of  journalists for the whole of  Britain's newspaper industry with "E" accreditations  (unlimited access) is just 270 .

Now let's see. Pick another country, say China. How many journalist and photographer accreditations do they have?  It's 500. Roughly the same.  So for a country with limited media freedom the numbers of accreditations are in line with Britain, which has the most robust competitive media market in the world.

The IOC will say that they have slashed the numbers of accreditations for China, as well as other countries like the USA and Australia compared with the Beijing Olympics. This in order to boost the numbers for Britain, who's total is about double the norm for an away Games. But the numbers are still pitifully low.

Locog and the IOC repeatedly say there are 27,000 journalists covering the London 2012 Olympics. But most of these are broadcast technicians, working behind the scenes ensuring the global television coverage reaches the four billion viewers. The total number of newspaper journalists and photographers from across the world is capped at just 5,500 because this is the total number London organisers factor in their provision of media services.

I have been on a committee for the British Olympic Association (along with other representatives from national, regional and photographic media) to try to decide how the accreditations are distributed. It hasn't been easy.

Over 4,000 applications were received, meaning just one in eight was successful. Essentially, priority was given to publications which face constant deadlines.  Some of the weekly newspapers and specialist magazines have a more intimate relationship with the athletes and don't need such immediate access to interviews after a race. Johnson is lobbying for these titles, and rightly so.

Perhaps the Olympics Minister,  Hugh Robertson, should be in there too, lobbying for far greater access for all of the print media in this country.