COVID-19 and the Media: A Pandemic of Paradoxes

Abstract

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, amid collapsing revenues and a rising torrent of online misinformation and gender-based hate speech, States have a human rights-based obligation to ensure the survival of public interest media, most urgently through subsidies that can be funded by proper taxation of multinational tech companies.

That is the leading conclusion of a new report by International Media Support (IMS), which assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the operation of the global media sector. Drawing on reports from over 30 IMS partners worldwide, on surveys conducted by international journalism watchdogs through 2020, and supported by in-depth interviews with eight journalists working in public interest media in select IMS partner countries, this report provides comprehensive insight into what it terms ‘a pandemic of paradoxes’. The paper was launched at the opening of the academic conference of UNESCO's World Press Freedom Day 2021.

Keywords: COVID-19, Pandemic, Coronavirus, Media, Public Interest Media, Human Rights, Health, Right to Health, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Big Tech, Tax, Hate Speech, Misinformation, Disinformation, Social Media, Safety of Journalists

JEL Classification: I18, K32, K33