BEIJING - Australian broadcaster Channel 9 has been banned from the Beijing Olympics common area for a week after breaching filming restrictions, the International Olympic committee said on Wednesday.
Channel 9, which does not have broadcasting rights to the Games, was caught filming inside Olympic sports venues and was reported to the IOC by the Australian rights holder Channel 7.
"The IOC has taken action against what was, in our view, a serious breach of the news access rules," IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies said in a statement on Wednesday.
Non-rights holders, referred to as "ENRs" by Olympic organisers, are not allowed inside venues.
"The Nine Network ENR crew will not be issued Olympic Green Common Domain filming passes and will not be permitted to enter the Olympic Green Common Domain with equipment. This sanction is effective immediately and will end at 2400hrs on Wednesday 13."
Channel 9, which will be the rights holder for the 2012 London Games, apologised for the incident and did not air the footage it had shot inside the Water Cube, as the swimming centre for the Beijing Games is known.
It was not clear if all Channel 9 ENR crews were banned or just the one that violated the filming restrictions.
Channel 9 said it has not been banned from the Games.
"We have not been banned from the Olympics," Channel 9 reporter Michael Usher told the television station's nightly news bulletin on Wednesday.
Usher, speaking from Beijing, said he and his film crew still had official Olympic passes.
"We cannot film some vision in the Olympic Park for a couple of days. But we are here in strength," he said.
Broadcast rights holders pay several billion dollars for the exclusive right for broadcasting the Games and operating in specific areas.
All other broadcasters are forced to operate outside the venues as non-rights holders.