Out of the picture?

IHSA policy could force newspapers to stop photographing state finals events

The Illinois High School Association and the Illinois Press Association may be approaching another crisis.

During the past six months, the organizations have been at odds over access rights of newspaper photographers and their companies' use of images from IHSA state final events. Tuesday, IHSA executive director Martin Hickman told The Beacon News that all newspaper photographers will be required to sign a waiver stating their organization will not sell reprints of photos taken during IHSA finals. If papers refuse to sign, they will not be credentialed for the events.

"The reality of the situation is we're going to ask photographers to sign an agreement that whoever they're representing won't use the pictures on the secondary market," Hickman said. "If you sign, you're in and you're going to get your pass. If you don't, you'll be denied photo credentials."

This information was news to Josh Sharp, an IPA lobbyist in the organization's government relations office.

"This is the first time I'm hearing that," Sharp said of the decision to make photographers sign a waiver. "That's essentially what we were thinking (would happen). I bet you for the spring they'll come back with some new rules because of what happened with football and the fact that we've introduced legislation. I'm not shocked at all to hear it."

On Jan. 23, the IPA earned sponsorship of Illinois House Bill 4582. If passed, the bill would prohibit the IHSA from regulating how the media uses its visual images.

During the IHSA state football championships on Nov. 23 and 24, the IHSA refused to grant field credentials to several newspapers that were selling photos.

The rift between the IHSA and the IPA widened on Nov. 1 when the IPA -- of which The Beacon News is a member -- filed a lawsuit against the IHSA photo restrictions. Those regulations would prohibit papers from selling images that have not already been in print, including images that have appeared on the Internet.

Included in the lawsuit is the preferential treatment the IHSA affords its partner, Visual Image Photography, Inc. (VIP) during the IHSA state finals. According to the lawsuit, the IHSA allows VIP preferential treatment and access for the "sole purpose of enhancing the commercial value of those events for IHSA and VIP" as VIP offers their photos for sale.

"We're looking at access problems," Beacon News photo editor Marianne Mather said. "That's what the photographers and the newspapers care about. The IHSA is concerned that somehow we're making a lot of money off of reprint orders, which we're not. And they want to control the access of our images."

In regards to signing such a waiver, Mather said Beacon News photographers are not authorized by their parent company, Sun-Times Media Group, to sign any documents on behalf of the paper.

Sharp said there may not be a resolution to the lawsuit until April or May, and any movement on the House Bill may come even later. So, if the IHSA does require photographers to sign a waiver, Sharp and the IPA recommend that they do not, essentially preventing newspapers from running photographs from the state finals.

"We've got to stand by our principals here," Sharp said.

Hickman stressed on Tuesday that he would be willing to meet with the IPA to reach a resolution, but said he had not heard from the IPA following a discussion on Aug. 8 until the lawsuit was filed. He also said the IHSA submitted a proposal to the IPA on Nov. 14.

"We've been trying to negotiate," he said. "But you can't negotiate with yourself."

According to a letter from the IPA to Hickman dated Oct. 30, the IPA felt it was necessary to file the lawsuit after a meeting with IHSA officials during a Media Advisory Committee in September.

"We've demonstrated that we were happy to discuss the issues and work towards some resolution without legislation or without a lawsuit, but the IPA filed the lawsuit, we didn't," Hickman said. "The IPA has found somebody to sponsor a bill, we didn't go down that road. I think our position has been consistent all along and we're happy to talk to people about this issue."