By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The Independent Media Commission (IMC) has launched a set of guidelines for journalists to follow during coverage of public health emergency situations.
The chairman of the commission, Ambassador Alieu Kanu, said the introduction of the guidelines was just the beginning of the IMC’s engagement with journalists.
“This is just the beginning of the relationship between us and our constituents (journalists),” he said.
Francis Sowa, a commissioner at the IMC, said the program was part of a process that had been ongoing since October 2015. He said it was aimed at not only teaching journalists about how to report on Ebola but also other health emergencies.
“The document focused on broadening reporting from EVD to reporting on public health emergency,” Commissioner Sowa said.
In 2014 Sierra Leone was hit by the Ebola virus outbreak and most journalists were struggling to report on it due to both lack of information on it and how to go about the reporting.
This raised many questions of ethics.
Edward Tiffa, a journalist at the launch of the report, recalls his experience covering the outbreak with little knowledge, which affected the quality of the information he gave out.
“We had no guidance and so the quality of information we were giving was affected,” he said.
This document will come as a welcome news to many journalists who yearn for improvement on their capacity in reporting issues related with emergencies.
Among others, it entails that during outbreaks media houses should create a team from their staff dedicated to covering such issues, and that journalists must understand vulnerability analysis before reporting on these issues.
Mr Sowa said as much as it was the responsibility of journalists to cover health emergencies and disasters, they must understand the laws surrounding their reportage.
“You [journalists] must understand the international, regional and national laws and protocols relating to how to report on health emergency and disasters.”
At the ceremony, some people raised concerns about how the document would fit with the current 2007 IMC code of practice. Sowa said the guidelines would be connected to the already established IMC code of practice and noted that abiding by it would prevent one from breaking any rule in the code.
Thursday’s launch was preceded by a validation exercise on Wednesday 16, March. According to the commission, the popularisation process was set to be replicated in the provinces.
The expectation was that journalists, who were the direct beneficiaries, would efficiently utilise the document to cover future health emergency situations.
(C) Politico 22/03/16
