UNESCO deplores the death of scores of journalists around the world who have perished from COVID-19, in many cases contracted while reporting on the health crisis.
Journalists are on the frontline and put their safety in peril every day to bring citizens reliable and verified information on the pandemic. Their contribution has been invaluable for us all. But many lack protective equipment and access to healthcare, and some have been made to pay the ultimate price for their coverage of the health crisis. I stand in solidarity with media workers and their families during this demanding and perilous time.
Media workers covering the pandemic in the field are particularly exposed to the virus, and the drop in revenue for media outlets has add extra complexities to this scenario, affecting the actual jobs of media workers, and the availability of protective equipment and necessary sanitary safety training for journalists and their crew. The situation of freelancers has likewise become increasingly precarious.
While the monitoring of the deaths of media workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic is a difficult exercise and is still underway, the Swiss-based non-governmental organization Press Emblem Campaign recorded at least 127 deaths of journalists in 31 countries between 1 March and 31 May, two thirds of which were on duty. In some countries, journalists have also been subject to harassment, persecution and detention as a result of their work to inform citizens about the crisis.
UNESCO promotes the safety of journalists through global awareness-raising, capacity-building and the implementation of the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, and implements actions to enhance access to information and support media in the fight against the pandemic. In order to assist journalists around the world in enhancing their safety (including regarding their physical and mental health) while reporting on the pandemic, UNESCO, in partnership with the World Health Organization and the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, has deployed a Massive Open Online Course on this subject, which has so far enrolled around 9,000 journalists and media workers from 162 countries.