MEDIA accreditation for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series Canada Sevens came under scrutiny last weekend.
And while most of the media organizations were legitimate, a few Fijian media organizations used the accreditation to gain general entry for the event.
Mary Fraser, chief media officer for HSBC Media Accreditation, while addressing the issue, said it was disappointing to see people use institutions for media pass to watch the games.
“Accreditation requests were accompanied by sufficient evidence of affiliation or association with a formal media organization but as it turned out it was nothing but under pretense”.
Mary said Fijian media had the highest number of applications for the weekend long event and only selected organizations were approved.
“We could only accommodate so many. And with pseudo applicants, the legitimate ones were left out”.
The masquerades made rare appearance to the designated media area and spent most of the time in the general seating area at the BC Place Stadium.
Mary said a stringent vetting process will follow in the aftermath of this year’s media accreditation applications.
