National President, Excellent Women International (NPEWI), has called on the Special Task Force on COVID- 19, and other well meaning nongovernmental organisations to quickly rise to the demand and need of women journalists at the frontline of reporting the case of COVID- 19 pandemic.
The CEO NPEWI, Dr. Christabel Regan Okoye, made this statement recently, when distributing palliatives to the female chapter of Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Abuja.
Okoye said that “women journalists should be highly protected in a time of this virus pandemic. Only 24% of people seen, heard, or read about in all media and only 19% of expert sources are women. So many women journalists have contracted the COVID- 19 virus globally. Women journalists are at the high exposure to the virus and they have become a big concern to excellent women internationally. 75% of the global healthcare work forces are women. Women are also largely the main caregivers in their homes and most likely to be responsible for nursing children and elder in homes and isolation centers. As women are responsible for the majority of caretaking both in private and at work, it increases the likelihood that they will be exposed to the virus. Women carry a three-fold burden as they are responsible for disease prevention and response efforts, and at greater risk of infection and subject to emotional, physical and socio-economic disadvantage.
She further said that gender sensitive news coverage should not become a side issue but to be made of importance, especially during a crisis, otherwise media risk contributing to a deepening of the crisis and of reversing equity gains for women all over the world.
