Somali journalists face unprecedented danger to report the corona virus ( COVID19) cases & all the issues surrounding it.
The fact that Corona is spreading more quickly across the country, the journalists are in danger to get the virus as they continue to execute their normal daily routine.
The corona virus cases in the country are now at 2755 plus, 88 deaths and 751 recovered. This tells us that we should all be careful and observe the rules to protect ourselves from the virus.
According to Mr. Abdirahman Mohamed Haji a Somali humanitarian journalist living in Garowe and also one the producers of Radio Ergo Station headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya told us that “the journalists run their work as usual, everyday tasks during this COVID19. But all of those journalists happen not to have the corona virus protection kits like masks, gloves, hand sanitizer and many others in the course of executing their tasks. More worse, they also share the equipment they use to report information like the Camera and other radio equipment. They also happen to use the same vehicle to travel to where they get their reports. Whereby, they don’t seem to keep distance from each other.”
Furthermore, according to an anonymous person that didn’t want the name to be mentioned because of security reasons told us that, “I do my work daily as usual during this COVID19 and nothing has changed. When am talking to people I talked to them without any distance as usual because I make a video content so it’s hard for me not to meet the person face to face.”
However, there are no confirmed cases of corona virus that had happened to the journalists but this doesn’t make it any less dangerous.
According to Ms. Nafisa Xirsi Ogle, Media Women Network communication conveys a concern about the situation of the Somali journalists who are working on this hard time without all the necessary equipment they need to protect themselves from contracting Covid19.
Ms. Nafisa Xersi Ogle also indicates that “the station they work at should provide the necessary protection equipment to their employees to make their work easier and more safe amidst this Covid19. They can do online content that would be enable the journalists to do their work without going around and putting themselves in danger & expose the virus to themselves and their families. The safety of their health should be the first priority of their employers.”
In addition to the above, in Somalia there exist profound level of community stigma. Hence when people in most communities especially local community get the Covid19, due to community stigma and discrimination, he or she may not disclose to the community and journalists can’t know if even journalists have had the virus. Hence, this exposes journalists to contracting Covid19 easily in Somalia.
According to Ms. Nimco Muse Elmi, Secretary of Media Association of Puntland told us that, “the journalists need support to protect themselves from Covid19, we have given them some equipment to prevent them from getting exposed to CARONA.” She further stated that, “In Puntland State of Somalia journalists got support from International Media support (IMS). My organization had an online meeting with the head of the TV and radio stations across the county, we have reminded them that they need to follow the health experts guidelines on preventing CARONA, also should make sure that most of the reporters work from home and those who go out should be able to use their required equipment to protect themselves from contracting Covid19.
According to recent assessment conducted, it shows that Somalia has one of the cheapest internet systems which makes it hard for them to purchase those essential equipment for the journalists. Therefore, SOMA network, a unified 30 radio stations are in urgent rush to provide the essential protection services for the journalists to protect themselves from Covid19.
According to Mr. Mohamed Abdiwahab, secretary of SOMA told us that “the reporting of COVID19 cases by Journalists in Somalia are very low compared to the ones we get direct information from the Health Ministry of the Federal Republic of Somalia.
He also mentioned that all the station that are under his network had a meeting and they talked about how they could minimize sending the reporters outside and how they can rather work from home and also how they can provide the essential services to the ones that go outside to gather information. However, there are challenges like low financial that makes it hard for the Media Stations to provide such equipment to their reporters to protect themselves from contracting COVID19. “The CARNIVOROUS has affected us generally and economically. However, up to now there is no any journalist working with SOMA network that have had or contracting COROANAVIRUS.”
Somali journalists face numerous challenges in as far as executing their tasks with maximum protection from disease are concerned. These challenges encompass lack of equipment to protect themselves from COVID19, community stigma which makes people to conceal CAROANVIRUS cases & limited finance to enable them to execute their work well with complete adherence to health experts guidelines on preventing Covid19.
Hence, Media Organizations in Somalia need to support the journalists by providing to them the necessary equipment and finance to protect the journalists from contracting and to enable them to execute their tasks well in as far as reporting Covid19 cases and other issues surrounding Covid19 are concerned.