Reporters Without Borders tracking coronavirus effects on press freedom

MANILA, Philippines – Press freedom advocate Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has launched a tracker to monitor how the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is affecting press freedom around the world. 

RSF said in a statement on Tuesday, March 31, that Tracker-19 “aims to evaluate the pandemic’s impacts on journalism.”

“It will document state censorship and deliberate disinformation, and their impact on the right to reliable news and information,” it added.

Tracker-19 has an interactive world map on the press freedom situation, alongside coverage of press freedom developments and analyses. The tracker will also make recommendations on how to defend journalism. 

“The coronavirus crisis provides irrefutable proof of the relevance of our fight,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire explained. Journalists, he said, were fulfilling “an essential social function” by reporting what is occurring around the world.

“Censorship cannot be regarded as a country’s internal matter. Information control in a given country can have consequences all over the planet and we are suffering the effects of this today. The same goes for disinformation and rumors. They make people take bad decisions, they limit free will and they sap intelligence,” Deloire added. 

Tracker-19 can be accessed here. – Rappler.com