Media in the time of a pandemic: journalists’ witnesses from COPEAM network and beyond

During the last weeks, COPEAM invited journalists from its Mediterranean public radio and TV broadcasters' network to join the communication campaign “Media in the time of a pandemic”. With a view to sharing useful information on how a community of professionals from all over the region is coping with the extraordinary circumstances brought by the Covid19 emergency, more than 20 short video-testimonies have been collected so far and disseminated through Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, with a frequency of four videos per week since the end of March. Cov19 represents a global danger and a common challenge at many levels. For the news media, reporting about this issue means finding the effective balance between safety of journalists, public service duty, reliable information, responsible relationship with public authorities, data understanding, respect of privacy, promotion of a correct social behavior among citizens. The success of the campaign, which is now available on YouTube and that has reached an audience of around 55.000 people in less than 1 month, shows a huge effort that has involved COPEAM’s journalists at all latitudes, currently united by similar professional experiences: work routine changes, reversed programme schedules, adaptation to smart working, management of new ethical issues, etc. In the following weeks, thanks to the partnership agreement between TAL – Televisión América Latina (the network of Latin American broadcasters) and COPEAM, journalists from this part of the world will join our initiative through sharing their own experiences in this context.  All testimonies we have received highlight the importance of PSMs in such a time and, especially, the duty they have to well inform the audience, while avoiding increasing panic and contrasting the spread of misinformation. If we all respect the measures and restrictions imposed by our governments, the pandemic may near its end and we might be able to go back to normal soon. Let’s stay together! Let’s stay home!

Watch the YouTube playlist with all the videos here: