The World Championships were meant to be a celebration of cycling, but a decision by the UCI has overshadowed the governing body’s transparency and willingness to be transparent. Iain Treloar was denied access to UCI Worlds, with the UCI saying that despite a relatively empty media center and other organizations with more accredited members, CyclingTips had already met their journalist quota.Treloar has built a reputation for quirky, offbeat pieces, his latest roadside report at the Worlds is from the Seagull’s perspective as it crashed into Bauke Mollema. However, he is best known for his investigative journalism in the less talked about areas of sport.Treloar reported on the of the UCI sponsored flight of Afghan cyclists from Afghanistan, bringing to light the abuse of power and questioning the number of cyclists present as opposed to staff of the President of the Afghan Cycling Federation.He also drew attention to the in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the to Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the President of Turkmenistan, head of one of the most dictatorial regimes in the world.
Fittingly, Turkmenistan’s current press freedom rankings are 177th out of 180 countries according to Reporters Without Borders, and the UCI’s response to Treloar aligns itself more closely with the dictatorship’s values.
In the only press conference held by UCI President David Lappartient at the World Cup, the Guardian’s Kieran Pender asked a question following a report by colleague Christopher Knaus on Treloar’s exclusion from the event, asking specifically: “What are your thoughts on the allegations? Undermining freedom of the press?”“Two points,” Lappartient said. “The first is that it’s exactly the UCI guideline for accreditations, it’s been published, it’s three per newspaper and as far as I know CyclingTips already has three journalists. Each newspaper is here with three journalists, after that I have no more concrete comments.“By the way, any newspaper is welcome, but this newspaper used their three accreditations that we do for this event, so here we are.”SBS Sport has established that CyclingTips actually has two journalists and a photographer, the Illawarra Mercury has 9 accredited members at the race, disproving claims made by Lappartient and the UCI. The mostly empty facility in the entertainment center, perhaps ten percent full when busiest, and would not be stretched by the addition of a reporter, or even if all organizations present had four reporters. CyclingTips Editor-in-Chief Caley Fretz responded to a query from SBS Sport about the UCI President’s claims.“We understand that the reason given for refusing Iain’s certification simply does not hold water,” Fretz said. “The whole situation is deeply disappointing, petty and not befitting the sport’s governing body.
“We are here as Australia’s largest cycling-focused publication to report on and promote the sport we love, but the conduct of the UCI prevents us from doing just that.”
Treloar himself is outside the media center but he is still out and about in Wollongong and if the UCI’s aim was to quash coverage of Treloar’s articles they have failed as it only draws further attention to them.
Sadhbh O’Shea, a representative of the cycling journalists’ union, the British association l’Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC), was on the spot in Wollongong and said she had never used the “three reporter rule” and that it existed no space restrictions the media center.
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