Indira Aryal

At a time when the world is at standstill with lockdown used as a major strategy to combat the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19), the role of media to spread right information to the public continued to remain unabated.

Media in Nepal have played an important role to cover the issues and events surrounding the global pandemic and advocated on health issues and educated citizens for safety measures while staying socially disconnected.

The effect of the pandemic is felt in every sector that we knew and has disrupted all forms of industry, let alone the media sector.

This article brings into understanding the challenges and trends of media sector amid six weeks of lockdown in Nepal.

Job security and safety of journalists

The effects of COVID-19 are felt in operation of media.The advertising revenues have declined, and larger print media outlets have reduced the number of pages they printed and their circulation.

The trend of print edition newspapers and magazine has gone online. Himal magazine and Kantipur Publications suspended their print edition, but the latter continued its print edition from April 4 after discontinuing for a week.

But as of now, many print editions, especially that of magazines and weeklies as well as Republica daily remains suspended. As the lockdown prolonged, and the economic support to the news media was drying up, major daily newspapers have internally announced furloughs, minimize costs and forced unpaid leave.

Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) in its monitoring report warns that the pandemic will have an effect on job, where journalists are losing their jobs. The report further points out that that journalist was deprived from salary, were given unpaid leave, and were only called for part-time work.

However, most of the journalists work from home apart from journalists working in the broadcast media and photographers has been reporting the news events from the field, as they have received permission from the government to report from the field during the lockdown. The safety measures however, were unconvincing.

FNJ pointed out that the media houses were unable to provide journalists with mask, sanitizer, gloves and other necessary materials that are deemed necessary while working in the field.

Diversity of content

The news media have covered diverse news stories. They have produced some powerful stories that have uncovered stories on corruption and misuse of authority case related to COVID-19 medicine and materials procurement.

Further media have set an agenda, where caravans of migrant workers walked to get home with no transportation and food support hundreds of miles, resulting government to manage transport service to them, a dichotomic role against its message that it has been spreading to stay at home.

Some positive stories of people supporting these migrant workers by providing them food in the streets and support provided to the hospitals by social workers are also influential stories that have been prioritized by the media.

Still at large, the media was positive towards government step to use lock-down measuresto combat COVID-19.

Combating Dis/ misinformation: Fact checking

Another trend during this crisis, is the effect of misinformation and disinformation that has circulated. Social media have become very powerful tool and it has been used as grounds for dis/misinformation even in some instances have affected the mainstream media in circulating such information.

Several stories have come up in the social media where Nepal’s online news media have created the news stories without verification. This infodemic has resulted to conspiracy theories, diverted the attention of policymakers, fostered distrust in government and sowed the seeds of confusion in the public.

Efforts have been initiated at the private level to fact-check the information disseminated through news media and social media. Nepalfactcheck.org operated by Center for Media Research – Nepal during the lockdown was an attempt to fight misinformation.

Umesh Shrestha, the editor of the fact checking site informed that they have engaged in fact checking the information on the viral posts that has come up in the social media and also news stories produced by the mainstream news media.

It is important in the times of crisis as public can be misled through the unverified information, even some mainstream media have apologized publicly after the factchecking was accomplished said Shrestha.

Obstruction in press freedom

In the international front, research show that pandemic is slowly threatening the press freedom around the world.

The latest report of Reporters without Borders and Article 19 that watches the situation of media scenario around the world has shown that freedom of expression has been affected during the pandemic as government use surveillance, censorship, arrests and application of restrictive laws that could affect media freedom and freedom of expression.

According to FNJ, there are at least 16 cases of violation of press freedom during lockdown that are related to threat, abuse against journalists and obstruction in gathering news.

Way ahead

Despite such challenges and disruption in services, media industry has been upended many times during crisis. Crisis also leads to opportunities. As people are in lockdown, the consumption of news media has grown online, and it is necessary for media managers to think to tap this new opportunity and bring innovative ways to attract advertisers to sustain their media.

But surviving this crisis, which is going to have long term effect in the media industry, also means support needed for its survival during and the aftermath of the pandemic. There are instances where province government have provided supported for journalists through FNJ providing them necessary materials that could prevent them catching the virus such as gloves, mask, sanitizers among others.

Also, providing them with insurances, regular health checkup could be other immediate action to be undertaken. There are also different ways one can explore into such as support from the government in leveraging loan, bringing in community support; seeking support from charity organization could be some options. Also, in regard to fighting misinformation and disinformation means spending in media and digital literacy.