Channel 9 suspended from Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games is big news in the sunny side of Brisbane, Gold Coast while the dark side of the story is the aftermath of the ‘Smith Gate’ and how the Australian public is trying to digest and come to terms with the incident.

Yet,australian sport is never too far away from disturbing news and incidents.

From the time Kerry Packer and his influence changed the face of cricket through his Television Channel - the Channel 9, sports has been an integral part of this channel.

Now the latest is that Gold Coast authorities have suspended the accreditation of this free-toair network.

The Gold Coast authorities confirmed yesterday that they have taken steps to suspend the TV channel as a result of breaking its access rules.

The Games official channel GOLDOC Chief Executive Mark Peters was quoted as saying “It broke our news access rules, so there has to be a consequence, the same way there is a consequence for athletes and officials, and so the consequence is we have suspended their accreditations. We will review them in the next few days.

“The other 16,000 volunteers and people (audience) respected the fact we asked them not to do it. And then they put it on their news service.”

Equally popular Channel 7 won exclusive rights to cover the Commonwealth Games events this time, but Channel 9 showed footage of the Opening Ceremony dress rehearsal on its prime-time news breaking the golden rule.

Meanwhile, the Queens Baton replay which flagged off over 388 days from the Buckingham Palace in England reached its final destination at the Gold Coast carrying the Queen’s message.

Prince of Wales Charles is scheduled to declare open the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, today.