As the third wave of Covid-19 hits Pakistan, challenges for journalists and media houses continue. In fact, personal and professional challenges for media persons as well as financial and administrative challenges for media houses have been amplified by the pandemic.

Health problems, job-cuts, salary-cuts, layoffs, the difficulty of accessing credible information, and the compulsion to carry out Covid-19 reporting are just some of the challenges faced by media persons today. Most women journalists face more problems these days than their male colleagues. The full gravity of the situation is realised only when reports of media persons dying of Covid-19 surface.

Collecting credible information despite the lack of Covid-19 related training and safety equipment is a part of the on-going challenge. Dealing with fake news and fact-checking available online information has added to the burden. There are no Covid-19 testing facilities at most media offices and most media houses do not provide transportation even during the pandemic.

A woman journalist from Karachi who wishes to not to be identified, tells TNS: “We face many pressures and challenges - from handling domestic affairs during the lockdown to reaching the office on time despite the lack of transportation. We also face pressure to work full-time”. A media office in Islamabad reportedly forced journalists to show up regularly despite the pandemic and fired those who were unable to do so.

Many media houses have cut salaries and abolished ‘redundant’ jobs. This has been mostly a consequence of financial constraints for media houses worsening owing to the pandemic. Over the course of the year “the media work force faced lay-offs and their salaries were drastically reduced on the pretext of business losses” says Muhammad Nadeem Chaudhry, a senior health reporter and joint secretary of National Press Club, Islamabad. Chaudhry tells TNS that frontline media workers suffered much more than large media houses. Some workers’ unions, at the capital level, helped journalists by providing them with training and safety equipment.

A study conducted by the Pakistan-based German non-government organisation Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) concluded: “In 2020, the spread of Covid-19 claimed the lives of many media workers in Pakistan and infected numerous others. It presented a challenge for newsrooms in terms of implementing the required standard operating procedures to ensure the safety of their staff, often at the frontlines in covering the spread of the virus. In terms of coverage of developments regarding Covid-19, journalists had to work with data regarding the spread of the virus, as well as work within the guidelines of coverage that had been developed by government authorities. There were instances of journalists being arrested for their coverage of a quarantine centre”.

Afia Salam, a journalist and researcher who conducted a study titled Journalism in the Age of Covid-19: Perspectives from Pakistan tells TNS, “In the beginning all moves and measures were reactive. Only the bigger media houses put in place precautionary measures. Those didn’t extend to mental and emotional well being during the pandemic. Organisational measures were slow to kick in for journalists on the ground. Stringers of foreign media fared much better than local journalists,”

As far as operational sustainability is concerned those who traversed the digital sphere comfortably stayed afloat. In fact, some of them thrived and captured more audience than the traditional media that suffered blow after blow. According to Afia Salam, the lack of unity in the fraternity exacerbated the problems; financial, professional as well as personal.

The FES study highlights that Covid-19 has laid bare many shortcomings regarding media persons and media houses that need to be addressed. “The business model has been exposed for its vulnerability and requires robust restructuring to allow for resilience against such economic shocks as came with the pandemic”.

The writer is a staff reporter. He can be reached at vaqargillani@gmail.com