Journalists Safety and Coverage of Health Epidemics in Nigeria: Lessons from: Covid-19 Pandemic

Coverage of health epidemics is one of the cardinal responsibility of journalists the world over. This onerous task falls within the essential functions of media men to the society. During period of health epidemics, the populace largely depends on the media to furnish them with critical information about developing stories concerning health crisis. In truth, it is impossible for the journalist to cover the stories from self-quarantine. However, it has been observed in recent times that journalists are not being accorded the same, treatment or care given to medical personnel by the government. And this posture has posed huge challenge to the personal safety of media men in covering health epidemics in Africa. As major front liners in mitigating the spread of viruses in the society, their roles and responsibilities are often forgotten and as such led to the death of several journalists in the course of covering health epidemics. This study attempts to unravel the problem of journalist’s safety issues in the coverage of the coronavirus disease in Nigeria. Employing the library method of data collection, the study unravels the issues or problems and makes a case for journalists covering health epidemics to be adequately taken care of in their quest to furnish their audience with information. The study concludes that safety issues faced by journalists faced amid Covid-19 pandemic ranges from physical, social, psychological and more and had negative impact on the efforts make by journalists and media organizations in the fight against the disease. The study recommends that government and other stakeholders in society to regard journalists covering health disasters as essential workers like their counterparts in the medical profession and therefore make provision for their safety.