The Bangalore Royal Challengers will host the first game of the inaugural season of the IPL, but major global news and photograph agencies may decide to skip the action © AFP Enlarge

The News Media Coalition (NMC), the body that has under its wings global news and photograph agencies Reuters, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Getty Images, has not ruled out a boycott of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which starts on Friday.

Although the IPL's relaxation of its terms and conditions has satisfied newspapers and broadcasters, it still bars agencies from supplying photographs to cricket websites. The NMC is unhappy over the discrimination, which prevents it from serving a section of its clientele.

"The News Media Coalition calls upon the Indian Premier League to remove remaining obstacles in the way of full editorial coverage of the tournament, starting [on Friday]," it said in a release. "As terms of journalistic access to games still prevent photographs from games being used on cricket websites, the international news agencies are each reviewing their options for coverage including not seeking to attend at all.

The Press Trust of India, India's leading news agency, had said it would cover the event "under protest", but the NMC said the present accreditation terms are still not acceptable. "The interests of the Indian Premier League are protected by the fact that its accreditation terms limit news content generated by the news agencies to be used for editorial purposes only," the NMC said.

"It is discriminatory for the accreditation terms to prohibit international news agencies from being able to serve a specific group of users, such as cricket websites. Major international news agencies and news picture agencies including Reuters, AP, AFP and Getty have stated that they object to such discrimination and would not be able to accept the accreditation terms as long as concerns with this prohibition remain unaddressed."