Español The International Association of Sports Newspapers (IASN) has set up a special Master Class to help news executives navigate complicated "media rights" issues and avoid legal red tape when providing coverage of the 2010 football World Cup and other events.

Covering major sport events has never been more complex. With more "media rights" being sold every day and for every event, the straightforward businesses of news-gathering, providing news services and running commercial programmes alongside news coverage can be fraught with difficulties.

The IASN Master Class, to be held on 5 February next at the state-of-the-art Olympic and Sport Museum in Barcelona, Spain, will provide news executives with the information they need in this key and compelling area.

Full details can be found at www.press-iasn.org.

The Master Class will include the expertise of a sport news executive, who can catalogue the numerous restrictions he and his team face on a daily basis in covering sports events, along with the contribution of an expert in media rights, with long-standing experience as a journalist, who will describe the current regulations and help participants deal with the current rules and issues:

  Juan Ignacio Gallardo, Deputy Editor of the Spanish sports daily Marca, will introduce the various and increasing limitations on media coverage of sports events. Mr Gallardo started his journalistic career in broadcasting and has been part of his media group since 1991, with responsibilities covering virtually all the departments of the newspaper. Marca, one of the founders of IASN, has a readership of over 2.8 million, the highest in Spain for a daily newspaper. It also includes Marca.com, the most visited sports website in Spain, with over 3 million users a month, and a 24-hour/day radio station, Radio Marca.

  Andrew Moger, Executive Director of the News Media Coalition, will talk about the new rules on access to news: how do newsrooms can best cope with the implications of accreditation procedures? Mr Moger is one of the leading architects of the campaigning global network which seeks to protect the press freedom interests of journalists, editors and publishers in the contentious area of sport and other major news events. Before taking up this role with the NMC, he was a journalist and executive editor for national newspapers in the United Kingdom, including The Times of London. The News Media Coalition, with headquarters in London and Brussels, seeks to preserve the function and ability of news organisations to inform public society about major events of interest.

The International Association of Sports Newspapers (IASN), host of the event, exists to defend and promote the values of sports and the interests and freedom of the sport press. The IASN, whose international secretariat is based in Paris, acts as the sports arm of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the global organisation of the world's newspapers and news publishers representing more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.

Inquiries on this Master Class to: Rosarita Cuccoli, Secretary General of the International Association of Sports Newspapers (IASN), 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 6 88 86 32 47. E-mail: rcuccoli@press-iasn.org.