In periods of crises these kinds of as the COVID-19 pandemic, the media, and in outcome journalists, are a lifeline for citizens. They provide as significant avenues and channels for the provision of needed general public well being instruction and information that help people today to continue to be balanced and secure. At the same time, they aid hold governments accountable on how they react to the crises and how they utilise sources intended for tackling the crises.
In spite of their vital job, journalists have frequently been the subjects of threats, assaults, arbitrary arrests and detention in some cases even murder. The COVID-19 pandemic have further worsened the plight of journalists. Moreover dealing with the trauma of putting on their own at chance of contracting the virus, functions of COVID-19 connected violence versus journalists across West Africa have been on the rise.
In Nigeria alone, much more than 20 journalists have been victims of COVID-19 connected abuses in the previous 10 months. Related varieties of violations have been recorded in virtually all nations in the region albeit at a lesser scale to that of Nigeria.
To enable offer with the critical implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the media surroundings in West Africa, the Media Basis for West Africa (MFWA) has commenced a series of webinars to search for qualified views and proposed alternatives to the troubles.
The very first in the collection of webinars was held on Thursday Might 21, 2020, under the matter: “Safety of journalists and COVID-19 in Anglophone West Africa.”
The Speakers at the webinar have been Francis Sowa, Chairman of the Media Reform Coordinating Group (MRCG), Sierra Leone Lanre Arogundale, Govt Director of International Push Centre (IPC), Nigeria and George Sarpong, Govt Secretary of the National Media Commission (NMC), Ghana. The discussion was moderated by Executive Director of the MFWA, Sulemana Braimah and featured journalists, media lecturers, activists and union leaders as participants.
Talking about the predicament in Sierra Leone, Francis Sowa explained that a state of unexpected emergency in the region intended to cease the unfold of the virus was curtailing freedoms of citizens like journalists who ended up not able to move freely to get data He highlighted the launch of a corona reaction committee by the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) as one steps that was helping to mitigate the affect of the problem on journalists.
Touching on the connection among media and safety businesses in the context of COVID-19, Sowa said the rapport with the safety organizations only existed at the larger stage that is at the higher command of the safety companies.
“In scenario of Ghana what we can say for absolutely sure is that we have largely experienced a absolutely free ecosystem for the follow of journalism,” mentioned George Sarpong of Ghana’s NMC. He nonetheless acknowledged a number of incidents of attacks on journalist in some parts of the nation.
Sarpong included that in an attempt to curb phony news throughout the pandemic, the safety companies in Ghana had desired to “rely on a provision in the Digital Communications Act, to, as it have been, request to arrest and prosecute people persons who interact in the unfold of wrong data.” He emphasised that in a general public wellbeing crisis, there is a tendency to forget about human legal rights in the defense of community health and fitness but this really should not be comprised.
On Nigeria, Lanre Arogundale of the IPC, mentioned the push flexibility house in the nation was now shrinking in advance of the outbreak of the pandemic. He reported it appeared protection forces took benefit of the lockdown imposed on some cities in the region to abuse journalists.
He noted that violations towards journalists came from several directions which include terrorists, officers of safety organizations, State Governors, between many others.
Arogundade characteristics various of the incidents of abuse to, amongst other people, state protection authorities performing on the orders of political players. “It’s this political attitude that has educated the conducts of the security agents when they are relating with journalists. That points out why in spite of the point that journalists have been recognised as frontline employees they have been even now remaining prevented from relocating during the curfew just a pair of times ago,” he mentioned.
The large issue was what can be done to halt the abuses from journalists in the area? The panel of professionals shared the subsequent tips:
- Collaboration: There should really be solid collaboration among the media help organisations, state companies and other actors to collectively deal with abuses from journalists. This kind of collaboration will have to include regional and sub-regional bodies these types of as the AU and ECOWAS. There need to be a collective place and voice talking versus abuses in opposition to journalists at all occasions.
- Investigation and Frameworks: There is a require for a regional analysis of the effect of the pandemic on journalists basic safety and the over-all media natural environment and coming up with a regional strategic framework for responding to the effect.
- Strengthening relations involving media and protection organizations: Endeavours need to be produced to reinforce relations involving journalists and safety forces in the respective international locations to stem the tide of rampant assaults on journalists by safety personnel. This sort of an effort and hard work need to have to include capacity building for equally journalists and security officials on their respective roles in the initiatives to include the pandemic.
- Facilitative regulatory Solution: Media regulatory bodies will need to go in direction of a additional facilitative and conciliatory technique to media regulation, that enables smooth collaboration with the media marketplace to guarantee absolutely free, open up, and sustained democratic media.
- Potential constructing: There must be rigorous potential constructing for journalists on how to skillfully address the pandemic although being risk-free. This sort of capacity constructing will include things like working with phony information and misinformation.
- Guidance for media institutions: Governments and other actors ought to offer you a safety assistance to media organisations.
