New guidance has been published to help broadcasters use more respectful camera angles when covering female athletics events.
In July, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) released ‘Raising the bar: guidelines for respectful media coverage in women’s athletics’. The guidelines were created in collaboration with Olympic athletes, including Holly Bradshaw, Ivana Španović and Blanka Vlašić.
The guidance isn’t intended to be a set of restrictions, instead, it shows the best camera angles to use when photographing and filming female athletes. It also gives advice on what angles to avoid so female athletes aren’t sexualised with inappropriate shots. The guidance is recommended for sports such as high jump, pole vault, running events and horizontal jumps.
Louise Exton, Head of NSPCC Sport, welcomes the new guidelines. She said:
“We know that this issue has been affecting athletes for a long time, and it's even more troubling now with the rise of AI. It’s not just the photo of the moment, but what happens to it afterwards, through gifs and memes, or the images being recreated in a completely different context.
“This guidance is a huge step forward in making sure athletes can concentrate on their performance and not worry about how certain moments of it might be captured and misused. We would hope it can be applied to creating respectful images and footage of athletes in all sports.”
EBU are setting the standard for all broadcasters, big and small, to capture the technique and emotion of women’s sport, whilst respecting athletes’ dignity.
Visit ‘Raising the Bar’ to read the guidance.