Covid-19 wreaks havoc on rural journalists in India & Brazil looks to moderate content on Telegram
This week we take a look at the impact of Covid-19 on journalists in India. Those reporting in rural areas have been exposed to the virus and many have lost their lives. In Brazil, content moderation on Telegram is the challenge for the coming year. In Myanmar, the military regime is building narratives to suggest that the democratic government collaborated with Western agencies to manipulate the elections.
Do catch new and exciting updates from Meedan. In celebration of the first anniversary of Meedan's Health Desk, our team is thrilled to share the publication of our first peer-reviewed paper that highlights the project, its purpose, and experiences from the first seven months of the pilot.
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In rural India, journalists face choice between covering pandemic and survival (Reporters Without Borders)
With the number of Indian journalists killed by Covid-19 now more than 500, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is shedding light on the dilemmas facing reporters trying to cover the pandemic’s under-reported impact in India’s rural areas, where they are exposed to many dangers.
Nearly three quarters of the victims are believed to have died after catching the virus while out reporting. This proportion could be underestimated because of the lack of data about reporters covering the pandemic in rural or semi-rural areas, where they are especially exposed and have little protection. Nearly two-thirds of the journalists killed by Covid-19 since the end of May were working in rural or semi-rural areas.
"Some media outlets have had to take the lead in responding to the situation. “In the beginning of the first wave, all our reporters were in the field... But as the death toll rose and the oxygen shortage began, we realised we needed to safeguard our teams, so we adopted a special set of rules." — Kavita Devi, co-founder of Khabar Lahariya, a grassroots news organisation consisting solely of women reporters from rural areas.
Telegram is a big challenge for 2022 and we are looking for contact, says TSE general secretary (Folha De S.Paulo)
For Aline Osorio, secretary general of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and coordinator of the Program to Combat Disinformation, the partnerships with the platforms were successful and should be expanded next year, including greater transparency on the part of the platforms. In addition, she considers that one of the priorities is for platforms to have clear content moderation rules for the electoral context, such as in cases of posts improperly alleging fraud in the electoral result or that do not recognize the electoral result. One way, according to her, would be to include in the electoral reform the obligation for platforms to have such rules.
"Telegram is a great challenge, we have been looking for channels, we still can't get to Telegram. Currently the content moderation that is done, or is virtually not done by Telegram, is more based on terrorism concerns. We are using diplomatic routes to reach Telegram representatives." — Aline Osorio
The conspiracy theories Myanmar’s paranoid generals use to justify the coup (Rest of World)
The military in Myanmar have been resorting to xenophobic narratives and conspiracy theories of foreign interference to justify the ongoing coup and discredit the democratically elected political leaders of the country. Disinformation campaigns on social media and pro-military Facebook groups have projected foreigners who were economic advisors to the elected government and international organizations as foreign influences undermining and controlling the nation.
In the last decade, Myanmar has been flooded with all things foreign, from fast food restaurants to economic advisors. In response, nationalists adopted these new influences and accompanying tools for themselves, promoting conspiracy theories and organizing disinformation campaigns on social media, decrying how these foreign influences were undermining and controlling the nation. The junta is now using these age-old narratives to justify their power grab and discredit those elected to power to a citizenry that is almost universally united against them.
"It’s interesting that they find it necessary to accuse Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy of collaborating with Western organizations or Western political forces to manufacture an election that was unfair and unfree." — Dr. Van Tran (studies political movements in Myanmar)
What’s new at Meedan
Meedan’s Health Desk scientists featured in the Harvard Public Health Review
Meedan’s Health Desk officially launched on June 6, 2020. In celebration of our first anniversary, our team is thrilled to share the publication of our first peer-reviewed paper that highlights the project, its purpose, and experiences from the first seven months of the pilot.
“We are so excited to be able to showcase the work that goes into making Health Desk possible and the scientists that power this service for newsrooms and fact-checking organizations. Begninning as a small, ambiguous project during a global crisis and shaping into what it’s become today is all a testament to the care that our writers put into explaining these difficult topics,” said Megan Marrelli, Health Desk lead.