The true vaccination needed for journalism in post-COVID era

Ashraf Aboul-Yazid delivering his speech to the World Journalists Conference 2021 (Picture by Seok-Jae Kang)

By Ashraf Aboul-Yazid (Egypt)
President, AJA
Editor-in-Chief, the Silk Road Literature Series

CAIRO: Since the dawn of history, through the centuries, humanity has been resisting diseases and epidemics that stroke the planet. We had known all about that in the past; thanks to historians. But in modern times we owe the press to document the few previous centuries since the inception of the first newspaper (1690), through all media platforms from radio (1901), television (1927), to reach the era of virtual media via the Internet, launched in the late 1960s.

Since its birth, the press has followed waves of diseases and outbreaks of epidemics, just as it has monitored the efforts of doctors and scientists to resist and discover treatments and medicines for them. Those who read specialized journalism will discover the birth of a new world of scientific media, and medical journalism that has provided all the world’s citizens with a new space in which this journalistic pen can cope with all aspects of the new sciences.

But humanity and journalism, together, faced a new type of epidemics that accompanied the spread of the Corona virus; it was the epidemic of fake news, which spreads conspiracy theories that are contrary to science and logic, and the spread of incorrect numbers and shocking rumors, with conflicting data on the tongues of doctors, politicians, and even clerics as well.

It has become necessary to deal firmly in order to control all these lies, which resemble a cancer in the body of journalism, afflicting it with an irreversible illness. Hence, last year, at this platform of WJC 2020, we dealt with a mechanism for resisting fake news.

But as we are in the post-Covid era, we should learn the lesson, and be prepared, armed with the truth as the real vaccine that will preserve the body of journalism for the post-Covid 19 era. Hence, we ask: How do we secure reliable sources that represent a trusted reference that lies cannot penetrate?

Initially, I propose to create a virtual source of knowledge, such as a medical and health news bank, it is a body similar to news agencies, that is updated around the clock, representing the large river from which the tributaries and small currents emerge, for journalists to drink from.

This source of medical information bank must derive its capital from the major international institutions accredited as sources of correct medical news, so that it is sufficient to refer to it in the footer of news in order to be certain that it is real news, and to question every anonymous news, until confirmed by the sources approved by us.

The role of this news-producing knowledge bank is to save lives threatened by fake news, rumors, wrong prescriptions, and quotes that are not based on science.

Ashraf stressing that true vaccination is needed for journalism in post-COVID era (Picture by Sang-ki Lee)

As a boy 50 years ago, I studied a school book entitled “Science & Health” for the primary education. My notebooks, on their back cover, had instructions that began with: “Wash your hands before and after having food”. I recall those two personal memories from past, referring to the critical situation of the human health.

After getting school science books only interested in space, technology, machines and so on, the precarious healthy instructions faded out in our daily life, but the Pandemic era brought them back.

In this age of overwhelming global media, finding fluids of news in our hands is possible via apps and social media platforms; we need a new strategy to involve healthy news in our journalism; whether they are online news networks, newspapers, and radio or TV programs.

What we need most is to feed these journalistic platforms from trusted sources. So, I recommend all authorities, organizations, and equivalent bodies related to human health, to start feeding true facts and news to help fighting fake news and saving lives. The new healthy information bank is the solution, a true vaccine that journalists need in Post COVID Era.