For all the journalists attending the Winter 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, there’s a likely chance that pulling out your cell phone during events will get you booted immediately, resulting in the loss of accreditation.

Several Russian outlets have quoted Vasily Konov, editor of R-Sport, Russia’s sports agency (also a part of the Olympic accreditation committee), telling sports journalists at a seminar that the use of multimedia will be “considered a serious violation and lead to their accreditation being canceled.”

Videos and photos will only be allowed to be captured by accredited journalists with professional equipment and special badges.

Konov has since denied saying this to the group of journalists, although Radio Free Europe has reported the same thing, quoting Konov’s seminar similarly.

Of course, the largers news outlet will be fully-equipped with the latest bouts of professional technology to cover the games, but trouble arises when smaller newspapers, websites, and independent presses don’t have such vast resources. The fact is, with photo cameras and tablets being so thoroughly advanced, the average eye won’t notice the difference.

Take a look at the winners from 2012’s iPhone Photography Awards, and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

But Russia doesn’t have the best reputation for free press, either. According to the World Press Freedom Index, Russia ranks 148th out of 179. United States sits at 32nd, while the most lenient country is Finland.