Corona safety for Arab journalists
ARTICLE 19 MENA (Middle East and North Africa) and Journalism & International Media Center (JMIC) organized the webinar “ COVID 19 and the challenges to journalism and ATI in the Maghreb region” 21 July.
The participants were from Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Morocco, and the award winning investigative journalist from Tunisia Hanene Zbiss moderated the discussion.
The focus was on the importance of access to information and the public’s right to know in such unprecedented sanitary time. Journalists had the opportunity to share their experiences, the challenges created by the COVID 19, and tools and tactics in terms of security, tackling spread of fake news, and misinformation to face the hardships. Journalists also expressed how they have experienced the lockdown at a personal and professional levels.
Saloua Ghazouani, Regional Director of A19 MENA, gave an insight into some recommendations drawn from “ The public right to know about COVID-19” report. Democratic governments has opted for restrictive implementation of laws to limit the practice of Freedom of Expression (FoE) and Access to Information (ATI) during the sanitary crisis, according to the report. The recognition of the role of journalists and their protection are given little attention by the governments. Also journalists face difficulties in accessing information and communicating with official institutions since the outbreak of the corona virus, since they provide excuses to not making statements.
Talking about the safety measures and working conditions of journalists since the outbreak of COVID-19, JMIC safety trainer Abeer Saady, underlined the idea of journalist’s rights protection by their media institutions through providing them with the tools of physical protection, as well as the protection of their financial rights in view of their fragile economic situation affected by the pandemic.
The webinar also tackled the issue of spread of fake news during the sanitary crisis. The participants shared their own experiences on how they have been able to identify rumors and ways to verify the information to combat the spread of the false information mainly on social media platforms. (by Syrine Ouled Marzouk Fellow-A19 MENA)