The
Ebola crisis in West Africa is unrelenting, and journalists on the frontline of
reporting on the virus are caught between authorities wanting to control how
the outbreak is reported, and falling victim to the disease themselves.
Liberia's media is in a fight for
survival, with its government continuing its clampdown on the press which began
after the first cases of Ebola
were reported there in March, according to CPJ research and interactions with local
journalists and rights activists.
On September 30, the government
announced it was taking over the issuing of accreditation for both local and international
journalists to practice in the country, according to news reports. The Press Union
of Liberia has accused the government of going against a Memorandum of Understanding
signed in the early 1990s between the PUL and the government, in which the PUL
was put in charge of accrediting individual journalists, while the government,
through the Ministry of Information, registered media houses, the reports said.
The government has reneged by saying the memorandum is not backed by any
statutory law, government spokesman Isaac Jackson responded.
On October 2, the government announced
new media restrictions barring health workers from speaking to the press, and
requiring all local and foreign journalists to obtain official written approval
before contacting and conducting interviews with patients, or recording,
filming or photographing healthcare facilities, according to news reports. Journalists
without this permission are at risk of arrest and prosecution, the reports
said. Health officials said the restrictions were necessary to protect the
privacy of patients and health workers, and applied to local and international
journalists, according to news reports.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in an
October 1 letter to Parliament also requested additional powers to restrict
movement and public gatherings, and the authority to appropriate property
"without payment of any kind or any further judicial process," The
Associated Press reported. The president,
citing the need to bolster the fight against Ebola, sought the suspension of
several articles in the Liberian constitution including freedom of expression and the press,
movement, labour rights, and religion. Lawmakers, some warning the country
risked turning into a police state, rejected the request, Tennen Dalieh,
program assistant at the Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding in Liberia,
told me.
Sirleaf's request in Parliament came
on the heels of a three-month state of emergency imposed on August 6 where, in a televised
speech, Sirleaf warned of the use of "extraordinary measures,"
including suspending citizens' rights, in the bid to contain the virus. Liberia
has the highest casualty with 2,458 deaths out of 4,493 confirmed, probable and
suspected deaths linked to Ebola, recorded in seven countries worldwide,
according to World Health Organisation figures published October 15.
Dalieh recounted to me how "this
is becoming a way of life; the sound of sirens, trucks loaded with
bodies." Mae Azango, a CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee and
journalist with the independent FrontPageAfrica, said
she has witnessed the incremental pile-up of bodies, at times nearing 100
daily, being deposited for cremation at the only crematorium in Monrovia which belongs to the
Indian community. "I am frightened! It is worse than anything you can
imagine," Azango told me. "People are dying on a daily basis. We are
dying Peter! We are dying, on a daily basis!"
The news that three Liberian
journalists died from Ebola is a reminder of the risks the press can face. The
PUL announced the deaths of Cassius Saye, a cameraman at Real TV, and Alexander
Koko Anderson, a contributor to Liberia Women Democracy Radio, who both died in
October, according to news reports and local sources. Freelance
journalist Yaya Kromah died in September, the reports said. It is uncertain in
what circumstances all three contracted the disease, local journalists told me.
With Ebola making headlines around the
world, international news outlets have deployed journalists to cover the story
in West Africa. Ashoka Mukpo, an American freelance journalist who was working
for the U.S.-based NBC News, contracted Ebola in October, according to news reports. Mukpo is among at
least five Americans evacuated to the U.S. for treatment after contracting
Ebola in West Africa, news reports said.
"Now that I've had first-hand
[experience] with this scourge of a disease, I'm even more pained at how little
care sick West Africans are receiving," Mukpo tweeted on October 13.
In
Sierra Leone, two journalists have died from Ebola, according to news reports.
Victor Kassim, a journalist at the Catholic station Radio Maria, died in
September, news reports said. His entire family,
including his child and wife, who worked as a nurse, succumbed to the disease,
Kelvin Lewis, president of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ),
told me. Mohamed Mwalim Sheriff, a journalist with Eastern Radio, died in June, according to news reports. One account said
that at the onset of the Ebola outbreak Sheriff had interviewed a Muslim cleric
who cared for a patient, Lewis told me. Sheriff may have contracted the disease
during the burial of the Ebola patient, he said.
With the epidemic rising despite a state of emergency, the
Sierra Leone government embarked on a three-day lockdown of the country
on September 19 to allow health workers to go door-to-door to educate the
public and locate Ebola victims. This led to the discovery of 130 new cases,
according to news reports. In the midst of
the ravaging disease, journalists showed how the press can help a nation in crisis. With radio the
main source for information, the media dedicated hours of broadcast time to
enlighten the public about the virus.
"We started doing our own
messages and broadcasting. We started by giving up free advertising space in
our newspapers and giving up 30 minutes airtime free on the radio for Ebola
messages," Lewis told me.
The Sierra Leone government has openly congratulated journalists and
acknowledged the positive contribution of the media to end Ebola, and called
for the media's continued partnership to combat it, according to news reports. This is a stark
contrast to how the government initially accused journalists of spreading
rumors about Ebola, before the disease spiralled out of control and led to thesacking of Health Minister Miatta Kargbo,
Lewis told me.
The SLAJ, with support from the
government, U.N. agencies and the U.S., has been organising training for
journalists on how to report responsibly on the virus, according to news reports. Lewis explained
how messages that Ebola had no cure were reframed to enlighten people that
survival is possible if they seek help early. Such messages helped abate
suspicions from the public on the intentions of the government to quarantine
them, with many believing that because there is no cure they would die.
Even legislators had to rethink fighting the media over reports that questioned how $1.7 million in
funds to fight Ebola in their constituencies was being utilised, according to
media reports.
"Parliament summoned me twice and
they saw reason for their focus to be on stopping Ebola and not journalists
whose responsibility, I explained, is to report the concerns and important
issues the public raises, including money meant for fighting Ebola," Lewis
told me.
In Guinea, CPJ reported the deaths of journalist Facely
Camara, of Liberte FM, and Molou Cherif and Sidiki Sidibe, media workers with
Radio Rurale de N'Zerekore, and five others in September. They were killed by a
mob while covering a public health awareness campaign in villages. The BBC reported that
many villagers accused health workers of spreading Ebola. Three weeks after
their death, soldiers prevented a team of journalists and lawyers who had
obtained official permission to investigate the murders, to enter the village,
Radio France Internationalreported. Their equipment
was seized and, when it was returned, recordings and photos had been deleted,
the report said.
The lack of education about Ebola
poses a great threat to the eradication of the virus. The effect is the
alarming increase worldwide in the stigmatisation of citizens from
Ebola-affected countries, which the U.N.'s high commissioner for human rights,
Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, has warned against, according to news reports. On October
13, Cameroon authorities deported three Sierra Leone sports journalists and two
sports ministry officials who arrived in Yaoundé on October 8 to cover
international soccer matches between the two countries, according to news reports. Cameroon police
and immigration officers barred BBC correspondent Mohamed Fajah Barrie, and
Frank Magnus Ernest Cole and Mohamed Kelfala Sesay, both journalists with
Mercury Radio, from leaving their hotel because the Sierra Leone Football
Association had not included their names in the official list of
delegates declared free of Ebola, Barrie told me.
"We were humiliated. It was very
disgraceful," Barrie said. "We were confined at the hotel, isolated
at the airport, and escorted even up to the entrance of the plane."
African governments have called on the
world to assist in the fight against Ebola; a plea being taken with more seriousness since its discovery in countries
outside Africa, including the U.S. and Spain. The U.N. Security
Council in an October 15statement has
however warned that the world's response to Ebola "has failed to date to
adequately address the magnitude of the outbreak and its effects."
With the world focusing on countries
stricken with Ebola, any government seeking to supress the media at this time
will surely be viewed as having misplaced priorities. Sierra Leone, which has
received international commendation for its efforts, seems to understand
this. Liberia could do more to use the press to help its efforts.
The implications for reporting on
Ebola are clear, and public enlightenment campaigns by the media, such as the Ebola page on the independentFrontPageAfrica's
website, are steps in the right direction. Journalists and their employers
however, must also think about their safety and well-being when reporting on
the virus. CPJ has advice on covering epidemics in its Journalist Security Guide, which is available online in several
languages.
There is a distinct difference in the
protective measures being taken between local and internationals journalists
covering Ebola in West Africa. Stringent precautions taken by international
media outlets include providing disinfectant sprays, surgical gloves, boots,
plastic overalls and bio-hazard kits, according to news reports. The BBC reported having
a bio-hazard expert working alongside its journalists in Sierra Leone as part
of its risk management. But what are the options for less sophisticated local
media outlets, many of whose journalists are poorly paid and barely have
necessary working journalism tools?
"We don't have any of those
protective measures like the foreign media. We are just making sure that we
follow the rules--no touching, wash your hands with chlorine, don't get too
close to people," Lewis said.
In Liberia, Azango explained to me how
journalists like her have been left to provide their own protection.
"Where will journalists get hazard kits when even health workers don't
have enough and the government doesn't want us to report?" Azango asked.
"We are on our own. I wear a long-sleeve coat, put on rain boots, and have
a hand sanitizer in my bag when I go reporting. That's all."
For journalists, media professionals,
and news outlets, the price of telling the important stories around this
epidemic ravaging West Africa should not come with the cost of lives.
Journalists worldwide have begun sharing their experience and ways they are
covering Ebola, according to news reports. Yet, the death of
media workers is having a deflating effect on the morale, journalists
repeatedly told me.
For Liberian authorities, the
necessity of a working relationship with the media cannot be overemphasized.
The government would do well to start forging a united front with the media and
other actors. This is a first step to ensuring the collective survival of its
citizens.
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