India: Covid-19 in Newsrooms

June 4, 2020--Camerapersons and reporters are among the most affected by the pandemic in India. India has ordered its people to stay at home, shut businesses and suspended all transport in what is the world's most grinding lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

But many journalists - especially working for networks - have been going out regularly to report and getting infected.

Most of the cases have been reported from Mumbai, the financial and entertainment capital of India. 

Fifty-three of the 167 journalists tested for the infection in the city so far have turned in positive results. Three dozen of them have returned home; the others are recovering in hospitals. Many more are quarantined at homes and hotels. Some 170 more journalists are waiting to be tested.

Most of the infected are TV reporters and camera persons and have shown no symptoms. The majority of the infected in India could be asymptomatic or show mild symptoms, reckons the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Chairperson of Mumbai’S TV Journalist Association explains the reason why so many journalists are affected with pressure from networks and over-enthusiasm of journalists who possibly didn’t take enough precautions and weren’t provided with any. 

There are well laid out guidelines for journalists reporting on Covid-19. Making sure they are followed is important. Barkha Dutt, who has reported more on the pandemic and the fallout of the lockdown than any other journalist in India, says she follows every precaution in her grueling routine. 

With all the precautions, pandemic journalism is in fact an act of courage and very hard work.

CFWIJ is saddened to hear the positive test results of women journalists within its network and wishes them a speedy recovery as well as calling out on news organizations to take the necessary precautions.