Appreciating the United Nations high commissioner for human rights for a comprehensive report on the impact of Covid-19 across the globe, the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), a Switzerland based media watchdog, calls upon all UN member countries to guarantee freedom for scribes, early vaccination and financial aids to corona victim families.

“PEC is very concerned about the devastating impact of novel coronavirus infection on press freedom. Covid-19 had a triple negative effect on the media: on their business, with huge losses of revenues, on their capacity to inform freely, with numerous restrictions in several countries, and on their staff, with thousands of scribes contaminated and hundreds died,” said Blaise Lempen, secretary-general of PEC.

The PEC team has documented the death of over  835 journalists since March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 67 countries, where most affected countries include Peru (108 casualties), Brazil (101), Mexico (87), India (55) followed by Italy (46), Bangladesh (44), USA (43), Ecuador (42), Colombia (37), UK (26), Pakistan (23), Turkey (21), Panama (16), Ukraine (14), Bolivia (14), Russia (13), Spain (11) etc, added Lempen.

“India has lost popular television scribe Vikas Sharma on 4  February due to post-corona complications and since then there is no report of media corona victim in the populous country,” said Nava Thakuria, the country representative to PEC adding that it might be a matter of temporary relief, but media persons across India, while playing the role of corona-warriors, must continue following necessary precautions.