Srinagar: The Kashmir Press Club Saturday urged the media-persons to strictly follow the COVID-19 guidelines and standard operating procedures while reporting on and during the pandemic.
It also urged the media establishments to pay more attention towards the well being of the working journalists and wherever possible work-from-home models should be encouraged.
In a press statement here, KPC also expressed concern that “some unknown social media users are entering hospitals with microphones and cameras while masquerading as journalists.
“The recent incident of a social media user barging into a Covid hospital with least regard towards SOPs is one such example, highlighting the menace,” KPC pointed out.
It said the social media is a powerful platform to reach to people, and anyone is free to use it for journalistic work as well, “however a trained journalist would never obstruct the functioning of medical staff.
“Unfortunately many such elements have cropped up who indulge in such activities with utter disregard towards professionalism. Such elements by these actions bring a bad name to the profession and also make the job of a genuine journalist difficult,” KPC said while denouncing such activities.
“Before practicing journalism, we would urge youngsters to seek proper training on journalistic guidelines and media ethics,” KPC said.
KPC also shared a link https://cpj.org/2020/02/cpj-safety-advisory-covering-the-coronavirus-outbr/ for the media-persons issued by CPJ to minimize risk of them contracting the infection.
