IFJ urges media to report responsibly on Coronavirus crisis

In the light of the emer­gence of new coro­n­avirus infec­tions across the world, the IFJ believes the media’s role is to pro­vide cit­i­zens with ver­i­fied, accu­rate and fac­tu­al report­ing and avoid­ing sen­sa­tion­al­ist report­ing that could lead to gen­er­al pan­ic and fear.

In the con­text of cat­a­stro­phes or epi­demics, fol­low­ing the IFJ Glob­al Char­ter of Ethics for Jour­nal­ists becomes more impor­tant than ever. The prin­ci­ples gath­ered in this Char­ter are the best anti­dote against mis­in­for­ma­tion, fake news and con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries that are cir­cu­lat­ing on social media. As its first arti­cle reads, «respect for the facts and for the right of the pub­lic to truth is the first duty of the jour­nal­ist.»

Jour­nal­ists and media must report on facts and reli­able sci­en­tif­ic sources, avoid­ing spec­u­la­tion. Fear-induc­ing vocab­u­lary that could cre­ate a state of alarm that does not cor­re­spond to real­i­ty should be avoid­ed. Jour­nal­ists should also be espe­cial­ly sen­si­tive with the pri­va­cy of affect­ed peo­ple.

Accord­ing­ly, the IFJ also calls on pub­lic author­i­ties and med­ical insti­tu­tions to pro­vide time­ly and trans­par­ent infor­ma­tion so that jour­nal­ists have access to all the infor­ma­tion.

IFJ Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary, Antho­ny Bel­langer, said: “The jour­nal­ist’s respon­si­bil­i­ty towards the pub­lic takes prece­dence over any oth­er respon­si­bil­i­ty. Media can increase pub­lic aware­ness of the sit­u­a­tion regard­ing the Coro­n­avirus through report­ing that edu­cates, warns and informs prop­er­ly on the prob­lem. That way they can also be part of the solu­tion. It’s in this kind of con­text when we have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to again demon­strate to cit­i­zens the val­ue of qual­i­ty, eth­i­cal jour­nal­ism”.

The IFJ rep­re­sents more than 600,000 jour­nal­ists in 146 coun­tries.

BAJ has been asso­ciate mem­ber of The Inter­na­tion­al Fed­er­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists since 1997.