The health crisis: what is the impact on our societies?
Providing information on the pandemic and combating fake news: ten media outlets from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine are launching new quality content to help people distinguish between what is true and what is false and understand the social consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.
Media outlets play a crucial role when it comes to protecting social cohesion, especially during a pandemic. Rigorous information on safety instructions and preventive actions, for example, helps to reduce stress and tension and to limit disproportionate reactions.
It is also essential to step up the fight against fake news, as it can be particularly dangerous in this context. It is equally important to understand the gender-related impacts of the coronavirus, with lockdown situations having exacerbated violence against women, for example.
Media outlets must therefore provide information on the multiple impacts of the health crisis on society, not only in terms of health, but also in terms of the economy, justice and human rights, the situation of the most vulnerable in society, education, ecology, culture, solidarity, etc.
Ten media outlets providing information and combating COVID-19
CFI and AFD have chosen to support ten Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese and Palestinian media outlets in the production of content that promotes information on the current coronavirus pandemic and its social consequences, as well as combating fake news. These include:
- Wattan TV, a Palestinian TV channel with a national audience, is producing a series of videos on the impacts of COVID-19. One of them concerns the significant impact of the crisis on the nursery sector in Palestine.
- Daraj, a Lebanese online media outlet with a regional audience, is exploring the gender-specific characteristics of the impact of the coronavirus. Their article on domestic violence shows how the crisis can be an opportunity for Arab countries to change domestic violence from being a family affair into being a public issue.
- Fatabyyano a Jordanian media outlet that specialises in combating fake news, has launched a campaign against coronavirus-related fake news, using infographics and videos. For example, the nine reasons why fake news relating to COVID-19 spreads so intensely.
- Radio Salam, a local Iraqi radio station, has launched the programme Doctor Speak. A doctor answers listeners' questions during a radio show.
