Facing everything from a barrage of disinformation to heightened security risks and a mental health crisis, journalists around the world are contending with myriad daunting challenges as they report on a deadly pandemic, according to the first results from a global survey on journalism and the COVID-19 crisis.
In response,the government implemented a stringent lockdown restricting the movement of its citizens. As the pandemic’s second wave hits the country, the government is considering extending the state of emergency until January 2021.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently visited the new Bloomberg News office in Beijing, where he met with graduates of the Tsinghua University Global Business Journalism (GBJ) program. The meeting marked the eighth anniversary of GBJ, a project of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) which has trained more than 230 business journalists to cover China’s markets and the global economy.
As COVID-19 spread across Europe, countries like France, Italy, Spain and the U.K. faced high rates of cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to the virus. Germany, meanwhile, eluded similar levels of transmission and suffering among its citizens.
Dozens of Mexican factory workers have died on their way to work at manufacturing plants in at least 52 accidents, a recent investigation by journalists in Tijuana, Baja California, found. The workers were riding in vehicles provided by their employer that were in dangerously poor condition, the investigation revealed.
The global coronavirus pandemic has forced the Global Business Journalism program to consider completing the 2019-2020 academic year online. No final decision has been made, GBJ academic officer Chengzhang Li said on April 8.
As the world focuses on combating the novel coronavirus, some governments are making it even more difficult for journalists to write about the impact of the global pandemic. In Romania, where the government severely limited access to public information, two investigative journalists went undercover to track the country’s supply of dysfunctional masks. The two journalists, Ana Poenariu and Andrei Ciurcanu, spoke with ICFJ Director of Community Engagement Stella Roque to explain how they went undercover to carry out their reporting.
As the public remains focused on the global health crisis, pandemic profiteers are expanding their reach by whatever means necessary, journalists investigating crime and corruption across the globe said in an ICFJ webinar.
