The new Corona virus pandemic has contributed to restricting the ability of journalists to access many events and valuable information, and at times has led to their exposure to censorship and threats, which weakened the mainly depleted media by declining revenues, especially the local press.

In the time of the Corona pandemic, information does not flow smoothly, with the decline in the number of press conferences, the sending of questions in advance, or even the impossibility of asking questions at all, or not answering them.

Among these restrictions - for example - the European Football Association (UEFA) removed mixed regions during international matches, as journalists were allowed to meet players, and it became difficult to meet fashion designers with the start of the fashion show season, whether the show was held in attendance or not. .

"We have regularly seen situations in which people take advantage of the Covid-19 epidemic to hide information," said Professor of Information at the University of Arizona, David Coyler. Attempts to conceal information primarily include data related to the Corona virus itself, whether by the government or the authorities responsible for the health sector.

Access to information


In the US state of Kansas, Governor Laura Kelly this week rejected a request from the "Kansas Reflector" news site for information about the state stores where the epicenter of HIV infections appeared.

"Some authorities invoke the need to protect personal data for not providing information on injuries in homes for the elderly or in universities, although these authorities do not follow the procedures applied in such cases," he added.

The same spokesman, a former president of the Syndicate of Journalists, "SBJ" believes that government agencies, municipal councils and local organizations make their decisions behind closed doors.

With the spread of the Corona virus, the value of television as a main source of news has returned, and public behavior has witnessed changes in the pattern of consumption of media and their platforms.


More in Mohamed Khamaysa's report, "In the time of Corona, the loudest voice for television ... Read in the Reuters Institute report"


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- Press Magazine (@AJR_Arabic) June 22, 2020

The Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, has been repeatedly accused of avoiding dealing with the media under the pretext of the current epidemic situation in the United States, and his campaign team attributes its limited movements to about 10 reporters and photographers only to health precautions.

To answer questions, which is rare, Biden campaign media officials appoint the four or five journalists who will meet him, to the point that his Republican opponents have accused the Democratic candidate, without evidence, of getting the questions in advance.

In


addition to

censorship

in addition to restrictions on access to information, journalists were subjected to censorship in many countries of the world, and this was justified by seeking to combat misinformation related to the pandemic, and this happened in Tajikistan, while other countries canceled entry visas for journalists, or ordered the deportation of foreign correspondents such as China or Egypt, after publishing articles criticizing those countries' management of the Corona crisis.

"Journalists no longer have time to access sources and delve into public data due to their chronic shortage of numbers," says David Coyler.

As a result, he added, "a large part of the information is provided in large quantities to journalists by professional communication institutions, but without verification of that information, and this is not a good thing."

A member of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Courtney Radish, believes that "the maneuvers of politicians and others have increased to control the messages that they want to pass in the past two years," noting that this has strengthened in light of the spread of the Corona pandemic.

In the demonstrations that followed the killing of African American George Floyd in May, Radish adds, journalists were attacked by the police, "but also by protesters who, in some cases, do not want independent media coverage."