Best Time To Stand With Journalists As CORONA Hits The Globe

BY PATRICK JARAMOGI

KAMPALA, UGANDA|SHIFTMEDIA| This weekend Uganda joined the rest of the world to mark World Press Freedom Day. The biggest challenge currently facing journalists, the world over, Uganda inclusive is the economic situation.

It is “Hell” amidst this Corona pandemic, Journalists are scrambling to keep the population informed, amidst hostility from the security operatives, and the threat of contracting the disease. Just like the ICT Minister Hon, Judith Nabakooba made it clear as she addressed the media, many media houses are not paying these journalists well As Nabakooba said, the majority are earning ‘peanuts’. And very few have been in position to provide PPE for their staff.

With the onset of this Corona, many media houses are observing job cuts and salary reductions of staff. Remember the freelance journalists who are paid per story are going to be the most hard hit.

It is at this time of COVID-19 crisis, that the journalists’ objective to produce stories to inform the communities under lockdown is needed more than ever before.

 

Investigative reporting requires time and resources, now coupled with the shrinking newsrooms, and the onset of the Corona Pandemic that has caused massive economic impact and cost-cutting, investigative journalism could come under massive pressure. Risks are high that stories, which are important (infrastructure), but not easy to do, will stay untold.

It is thus important that CoST Uganda comes in handy, first to help journalists understand how to cover infrastructure in a more secure way amidst COVID-19, secondly, journalists are still facing the challenge of accessing information, especially from government authorities. To make it worse, it is even harder to meet the government sources that we have developed over time due to the quarantine, and movement restrictions.

Government and most NGOs are swift and happy to use the media when they want to manipulate information for their own ends, but when we are investigating, accessing information becomes more like squeezing water out of a hard rock because we are seen as ‘squeaky wheels’.

Journalists are also facing a lot of hostility online, a fact that makes our work even harder during this lockdown period. This is so because unlike those days when we used to talk to sources, we now rely on social media that puts us on pressure regarding issues of ‘fake news’.

As I wind up, I can authoritatively say that the future of journalism in Uganda is challenging, and the economic crisis that is currently being faced by the traditional media will deepen due to CORONA. Stand With Journalists During this Pandemic

PATRICK JARAMOGI IS AN  IFF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST