On Friday, 14.02.2025, the head of AP Sports Law, Alkis Papantoniou, and the associate lawyer, Dimitris Poulakidas, had the privilege of attending, as guest speakers, the roundtable titled “Communication in Sports Integrity,” organized as part of the 1st Congress of Sports Communication and Journalism by the School of Physical Education and Sport Science of Democritus University of Thrace, organised in collaboration with the Hellenic Sports Journalists Association (PSAT) and the Department of Communication and Digital Media at the University of Western Macedonia.
In a highly productive discussion with distinguished academics and professionals from the field of Sports Integrity, we explored, among others:
* Τhe debate between the right to personal identity and the freedom of the press, as well as the public’s right to information.
* Τhe responsibility of journalists and the strategies for managing situations related to Sports Integrity.
* The proposed communication strategy on Sports Integrity matters by FIFA, which is described in the FIFA Integrity Handbook (please find the link to the Handbook at the end).
* The findings of the highly interesting C-633/22 ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which rejected the enforcement of a Spanish Court decision awarding compensation to Real Madrid for defamatory statements by the paper Le Monde in France (please find the link to the decision at the end of the text).
* The cases, along with some recent examples, where offences of Sports Integrity, such as corruption, bribery, and conflict of interest are overlapped.
We would like to express our gratitude to the organizers for the invitation, to the SPESS-DUTH and the city of Komotini for their warm hospitality, and to the other esteemed fellow speakers and the engaging and thought-provoking audience for the insightful exchange.
Until we meet again…
FIFA Integrity Handbook: https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/4508c0b218080028/original/Practical-integrity-handbook-2024-edition.pdf
C-633/22 ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UbvnumeXQ9y6DhWZFSSqFfpEZb-hJi7S/view?usp=sharing