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European Tour and Social Media

biggsy

biggsy

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Pretty interesting article on comments made by Euros on social media and how they face sanctions for some comments.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/story/2012-06-21/european-tour-social-media/55743486/1



PULHEIM, Germany (AP) – The European Tour has reminded players that they face disciplinary action for breaching social media rules after James Morrison of England recently criticized the Wales Open in an online post.

The European Tour says sanctions will apply for any "offensive, threatening, disparaging, hurtful or otherwise" comments, and stuck a memorandum on a notice board at the BMW International Open in Germany on Thursday to remind players of their responsibilities.

Morrison wrote on Twitter to describe the Celtic Manor course as a "dump" and say "one more round and then can't get over that bridge quick enough!"

The 27-year-old Englishman apologized for his comments during the May 30-June 3 Wales Open but will still be fined by the Tour.

The Tour also warns that players could face civil action from "'any other parties who legal rights are affected by such comments."

It is not known how many players have been the subject of disciplinary action.

Marcus Fraser of Australia, who holds the first-round clubhouse lead at the BMW International Open after shooting a 64, is believed to have been fined heavily for online comments made during the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles last August.

Fraser had played the opening two rounds alongside Rafa Echenique of Argentina, who was seen using his mobile phone on the course to rearrange a flight. Fraser went on Facebook to allegedly express his disapproval at Echenique's actions.

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It's happened in other sports. Do you think players should face sanctions for public comments on social media outlets?

I think people should be responsible for comments and desparaging courses that host events, like Morrison did, should be held accountable for them.

Tappin from my iPad
 
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Just an FYI - but when I visited that page, my Virus Scanner picked up a Javascript exploit trojan in the page... On the topic though, I think people should be accountable for these sorts of comments. Especially when they are about Wales, the greatest country in the world... :)
 
AndrewG said:
Just an FYI - but when I visited that page, my Virus Scanner picked up a Javascript exploit trojan in the page... On the topic though, I think people should be accountable for these sorts of comments. Especially when they are about Wales, the greatest country in the world... :)
Click to expand...
Interesting, it's from USA Today. I'll post the article above.
 
biggsy said:
Interesting, it's from USA Today. I'll post the article above.
Click to expand...

Might be a false positive, but just alerting people in case you've not got Browser virus scanning capabilities...
 
I hate these sort of questions. I tend to lean towards letting people say / post anything they wish as a private citizen but not as a representative of an organization, but where does social media fit in? If I'm on Twitter, nobody cares. Tour players use it for PR and publicity, connecting with fans...that's public to me, and so what they post is actionable by the Tour to me.


I think the Tour is WRONG to sanction people for it, but certainly they have the right to. I really don't like the "'any other parties who legal rights are affected by such comments" bit, that opens the door to all manner of nonsense because of hurt feelings.
 
I have pretty clear feelings on this. They should be sanctioned and fined. If they are playing for the prize money, willing to take the check and belong to the tour, then they know what they signed up for. The tours have plenty of trouble keeping sponsors these days. Players biting the hand the feeds them is counterproductive. This is employer/employee restriction, not free speech, IMHO.
 
I think if you would get disciplined for making a comment during a press conference then it's probably ok to be disciplined for making the same comment over social media. I'm not sure what those rules are or where that line is, but we're at a point where the traditional media is not the sole source (or even the primary source) for a lot of information so some outside regulation is probably necessary.
 
I think they should be kept in check. They're representing the tour any time they make a public announcement, and social media is just that. But, and it's a horrible grey area, someone should have some common sense when it comes to the sanctions. I wouldn't want to see an end to players sharing stuff with us via social media because they're scared to cause offence. But who says what's right and what's wrong?
 
This is interesting, especially with the LPGA putting the player twitter accts on the caddy bibs (unless it was just the one tourney).

What's a player to do? Have a "tour specific" twitter or other social media acct, then have a personal one as well for non-tour related/personal stuff?

With global cyber communications, where is the line for personal opinions (which pros are entitled to) and toeing the corporate pr line?

Just wondering...
 
Quite right: freedom of speech has nothing to do with this. It is unlikely that James Morrison will be imprisoned by the government for his opinions, after all.

But really, this is the same on most professional tours. Yap negatively about the course or something related to the tour and you'll be fined.
 
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