Media watchdog: COVID-19 is worsening threat to global press freedom

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders is warning the coronavirus pandemic poses a threat to press freedom around the world.

In its annual evaluation of global media freedoms, Reporters Without Borders said the health crisis could serve as an excuse for governments “to take advantage of the fact that politics are on hold, the public is stunned and protests are out of the question, in order to impose measures that would be impossible in normal times.”

The report said COVID-19 "has amplified the spread of rumors and fake news as quickly as the virus itself.”

In the latest edition of Update-1, National Press Club Broadcast/Podcast Team member Shannon Fisher talked with the executive director of Reporters Without Borders USA, Dokhi Fassihian (pictured below), about the global threat press freedom is under and how the group is monitoring the pandemic's impact on journalists.  

Club Broadcast/Podcast Team co-vice chair Mike Hempen produces Update-1. The podcast can be heard on the Club website or on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and Spotify by searching for "NPC Update-1."