JournalismPakistan.com
May 12, 2020

ISLAMABAD—Dawn newspaper has expressed concern over the growing number of COVID-19 cases among journalists.

In an editorial on Tuesday—Media workers at risk—the paper said the bitter irony is that those who have been calling out for everyone else to take protective measures have themselves been forced to work without sufficient safety measures in place.

The paper expressed alarm over the number of positive cases in Quetta alone. “Fifty journalists were tested for the coronavirus in Quetta recently. The results of no less than 27—more than half— turned out to be positive. It is yet another reminder that the list of those who advocate protection against the virus but do not always practise what they promote doesn’t end with the government.”

The editorial said media workers, in their rush to get the news, are seen continuously exposing themselves to the danger the virus presents. “Unfortunately, news-disseminating organisations are prone to crossing the line very frequently, thus exposing their staff to risks that would not normally fall in the category of the usual occupational hazards.”

The paper regretted that the restraint the professionals in the field and media trade unions have been pleading for has been thrown to the wind as the force of the market brutally lifts the old-fashioned mission-mask to reveal yet one more time tendencies that call for urgent pro-worker action. “Providing protective gear to those exposed in the field must precede a commitment by media owners who hardly need to be sensitised about the dangers they are pushing others into.”