Bill addresses school sports coverage

SPRINGFIELD -- State lawmakers have joined the fray over whether the Illinois High School Association can bar newspaper photographers from state championship games.

Chicago Democratic state Rep. Joseph Lyons is sponsoring legislation that would prohibit schools or organizations like the IHSA from regulating access to its events and use of photos and video from games.

The proposal was filed this week. However, no action is expected anytime soon as lawmakers are not at the Capitol and won't be back until mid-February.

The filing is the latest maneuver in a growing dispute between the IHSA and several newspapers across the state that reached its boiling point when the IHSA refused sideline access to photographers from four newspapers during the state football championships last year.

The Illinois Press Association, a group representing the newspaper business, has sued the IHSA, which responded with its own lawsuit against the newspaper association.

Marty Hickman, IHSA executive director, said Wednesday that he had not seen the legislation and could not comment on it.

In a news release touting the proposal, the press association, of which the Daily Herald is a member, said the IHSA should not be allowed to regulate the media.

"This legislation will send a clear message the public school events are public events that cannot be regulated as if they were private," said Executive Director Dave Bennett.

The Bloomington-based IHSA is not a branch of state government, and lawmakers have no direct say in its decisions short of passing laws. And over the years, lawmakers have a losing record when trying to undo controversial IHSA actions.

In 2005, lawmakers sympathetic to private school concerns tried to block the IHSA's plans to use an enrollment multiplier that, in effect, would pit private schools against larger public schools.

Despite garnering considerable attention, the plan was voted down in a House committee.

Others angered by the decision tried, unsuccessfully, to subject the IHSA to state audits

Similarly, in the 1990s, lawmakers from the Champaign area tried to pass laws preventing the IHSA from moving the state basketball tournament to Peoria. That, too, was unsuccessful.