- - - - - - - -

EXCLUSIVE
your own Blarney Stone

- - - - - - - -

Download complete CD of 10 songs

- - - - - - - -

Publish news

Musicians Database
Bulletin Board
Web Hosting
Editing Service

On-line Dating
The Dream Machine

Computer Shop
General Shopping
Have a story?

Buy BBC books & audiobooks


Open your Eyes

Free promotion
List your site
Your fortune told
Web News

free downloads

 

United Nations News Centre
UN

Toutcela.com
pour francaise

MP3 MUSIC

 

Irish gifts on lineIrish gifts on line
Buy an Irish Gift
Online Here


 

 

The Ring of Tooting
True ghost story

 

 

Limerick's finest modern day poet
Poetry

 

 

 

Rate this site:

 

_______ _______

Search Site

within   using




Article of the Day

This day in history

Today's birthday

World Headlines

Selected direct news input story index

RSF calls on Trump administration to allow free flow of information on coronavirus       printable version
23 Apr 2020: posted by the editor - Health, Journalism, International, United States

Journalists covering the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and their journalistic sources have faced access denials and retaliation for their reporting on the virus, press freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders reports.

Reporters from The New York Times and ProPublica were charged (https://apnews.com/895d67d2263dd55454341fb26ac01959) on April 9 with criminal trespassing at Liberty University related to their reporting on the university's decision to partially re-open its campus at a time when most other universities were closing indefinitely in an effort to combat the spread of coronavirus. Medical professionals at health centers around the country have been restricted from speaking freely to the press about their working conditions (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-31/hospitals-tell-doctors-they-ll-be-fired-if-they-talk-to-press) , with one being fired after speaking to the (https://time.com/5812006/washington-coronavirus-health-care-staff-fired/) Seattle Times
(https://time.com/5812006/washington-coronavirus-health-care-staff-fired/) about his complaints with the hospital and another reprimanded after speaking to the British publication Metro about being scared to go to work.

Press freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it is “alarmed by the chilling trend of press access denials and retaliatory measures against journalists, government employees and whistleblowers attempting to report on and speak out about the COVID-19 crisis in the United States. It is a matter of urgent public health that journalists freely report on this pandemic and those with information related to the pandemic speak out without fear of retribution.”.

Earlier this month, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly fired (https://apnews.com/5506d2d5fae6b1d3a8430ead966f21d8) Brett Crozier, captain of the U.S. navy aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, for raising the alarm about an outbreak of coronavirus on his ship. That outbreak has infected nearly 600 sailors, including Captain Crozier (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/magazine/navy-captain-crozier-positive-coronavirus.html) , and killed one (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/04/13/coronavirus-sailor-uss-roosevelt-ship-plagued-virus-dies/2981417001/) .

In February, the Trump administration directed Vice President Mike Pence to control (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/us/politics/us-coronavirus-pence.html)  all government health and science experts’ interactions with the press. In early-April, Vice President Pence briefly prohibited members of the White House’s coronavirus task force (https://thehill.com/homenews/media/492046-pence-bars-coronavirus-task-force-members-from-appearing-on-cnn-report)  from appearing on CNN. The vice president for a time barred task force member (https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-anthony-fauci-trump-admin-stops-discussion-2020-2)  Dr. Anthony Fauci from directly speaking to the public at all without approval. On April 2, the Knight First Amendment Institute sued the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for the release of information regarding the policy that permits the administration to restrict CDC employees
(https://www.quillmag.com/2020/04/03/cdc-sued-over-release-of-policies-restricting-free-speech/)  from speaking publicly or to the press. While it appears some restrictions may have been relaxed in recent days, the administration’s policy on allowing these experts to speak to the press is still not publicly available.

“The Trump administration has repeatedly criticized the Chinese government for its response to the virus, but the administration is taking a page out of China’s playbook by muzzling health experts, punishing whistleblowers and targeting journalists for their critical coverage,” said Dokhi Fassihian, Executive Director of RSF USA. “For the Trump administration to have any ground to stand on in its handling of this crisis, it must first foster an environment that allows for the free flow of information and the ability of government employees to speak out.”

Journalists across the nation have also encountered access denials in the course of their reporting. In Missouri, Governor Mike Parson has barred reporters (https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article241908676.html)  from attending his daily press briefings and tasked his staff with selecting reporters’ questions, which they must submit by e-mail an hour prior. On March 28th, a Florida journalist was denied entry (https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/florida-journalist-barred-from-governors-covid-19-briefing/)  to Governor Ron DeSantis’ COVID-19 briefing after asking for “social distancing” at previous briefings.

Meanwhile, the White House continues to verbally attack reporters during the daily coronavirus press briefings (https://rsf.org/en/news/rsf-calls-trump-end-attacks-journalists-encourages-news-outlets-assess-coverage-covid-19-briefings) . During an April 19 briefing, President Trump attacked (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/19/trump-jiang-reporter-exchange/)  CBS reporter Weijia Jiang, telling her to "lower her voice" and take it "nice and easy” when she asked why the administration had not done more to prepare for the virus.

The United States is ranked 45th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2020 World Press Freedom Index (https://rsf.org/en/ranking) .

>Local comment

Name: Remember me
E-mail: (optional)
Captcha

NEWS + LINKS + NEWS + LINKS + NEWS

Direct news input publishing
Into the 21s Century
  Are we sliding headlong down an accelerating curve of social
  madness and state sanctioned discrimination and prejudice?

Borhd Hooligan writes
The Weary Web Traveller
Hypocrisy, Hatred and the war on Terror
An encounter with the UK government's D-Notice
Headlines from Ireland

_____________________________
stored items

When Flesh & Blood are forgotten by Ramadan Akin
The world at war
War by Television a backward view?- by Noel Yotslot
Terrorism is there any answer?
money laundering scams - confirm details here

SPECIAL REPORTS
 Arnold Schwarzenegger denies beach bully rumour
* EXCLUSIVE—IRELAND RE-REINTRODUCES RAT TAX *
Ireland perfects brutunschweier clogomitis antidote
Limerick man first reported victim of brutunschweier clogomitis beetle
crop circles - the secret revealed
Ireland’s grollybelium tank uncovered
The Clonakilty cloning farm
Ranns invasion - latest details
Rare Tasmanian flea reported in Ireland
Knoxborough Hall — police stiill no closer to locating stolen stately home
Gorilla terrifies Limerick security guard
SWAPPA takes to the skies Hailed as Irish blueprint for future aircraft
Evidence emerges from the ice on human evolution exclusive
300 million year old Yeti unearthed in Ireland
Maggot colony disrupts airport flight schedule
News – is it worth it? – special report

Ñ general item   f feature

Some day you'll find everything you're looking for
a funny thing happened to me on the way to ...
reader opinion page
Click to check your browser compatibility and integrity
latest Internet security alerts
Traffic details for this site
Make Newsmedianews.your home page

Europe | Other Irish Snips | Business News |Voices of America

Submit Your Site
<List your site at Newsmedianews> | <What's New?> | <Try the Boring competition>
Click to check your browser compatibility with this site

About Newsmedia

GOT NEWS ?


news resources
Afghanistan | Africa | Albania | Algeria | Andorra | Angola | Anguilla | Antigua
| Argentina | Armenia | Aruba | Asia | Australia | Austria | Azerbaijan | Bahamas | Bahrain | Balkans | Bangladesh | Barbados | Belarus | Belgium | Belize | Benin | Bermuda | Bhutan | Bosnia | Bolivia | Botswana | Brazil | Brunei | Bulgaria | Burkina | Burma | Burundi | Cambodia | Cameroon | Canada | Cape Verde | Caribbean | Cayman Islands | Cen African Rep | Chad | Chile | China | Christmas Island | Columbia | Comoros | Congo | Cook Island | Costa Rica | Croatia | Cuba | Cyprus | Czech/Slovakia | Denmark | Djibouti | Dominican Republic | Dubai | East Timor | Ecuador | Egypt | El Salvador | Equatorial Guinea | Eritrea | Estonia | Ethiopia | Europe | Faroe Islands | Fiji | Finland | France | Gabon | Gambia | Georgia | Germany | Ghana | Greece | Greenland | Grenada | Guadeloupe | Guam | Guatemala | Guinea | Guyana | Haiti | Holland | Honduras | Hong Kong | Hungary | Iceland | India | Indonesia | Iran | Iraq | Ireland | Israel | Italy | Ivory Coast | Jamaica | Japan | Jordan | Kazakhstan | Kenya | Kiribati | Korea | Kuwait | Kyrgyzstan | Laos | Latvia | Lebanon | Lesotho | Liberia | Libya | Lietchtenstein | Lithuania | London | Luxembourg | Macau | Macedonia | Madagascar | Malawi | Malaysia | Maldives | Mali | Malta | Marshall Islands | Martinique | Mauritania | Mauritius | Mexico | Micronesia | Moldova | Monaco | Mongolia | Montenegro | Montserrat | Morocco | Mozambique | Namibia | Nauru | New Zealand | Nicaragua | Niue | Niger | Nigeria | Northern Ireland | Norway | Oman | Pakistan | Palau | Palestine | Panama | Paraguay | Peru | Philippines | Pitcairn Islands | Poland | Portugal | Qatar | Romania | Russia | Rwanda | Samoa | San Marino | Sao Tomé | Saudi Arabia | Scandinavia | Senegal | Serbia | Seychelles | Sierra Leone | Singapore | Slovakia | Slovenia | Solomon Islands | Somalia | South Africa | South Americas | Spain | Sri Lanka | St Kitts | St Lucia | St Pierre | St Vincent | Sudan | Suriname | Swaziliand | Sweden | Switzerland | Syria | Taiwan | Tajikistan | Tanzania | Thailand | Tibet | Togo | Tonga | Trinidad | Tunisia | Turkey | Turkmenistan | Turks & Caicos | Tuvalu | Uganda | Ukraine | United Kingdom | United States | Uruguay | Uzbekistan | Vanuatu | Venezuela | Vietnam | Virgin Islands | Walli & Futuna | Yemen | Zambia | Zimbabwe | World
Human Rights | Science | Journalism | Music | Showbiz | Sport | Technology
Clickable News Globe


Top | Privacy | Forum | Comment XML news feed directory MP3 Sounds | Links | Publicity | Contact
On-line Editing | Publish news | Guestbook | Site Status | Site Map
publish an item from this page to Newsvive.com Seed Newsvine
© Newsmedianews

Web newsmedianews

See traffic details for this site

© Newsmedianews 22 June, 2019
Founder member of ISCOM
Greece HARRIS-KHIOS Inc
.1391 UK
Member of International Guild of Editors

Web site hosted by www.letshost.ie
Constructed using Macromedia software

Supported by all Good Folk everywhere

&
all major credit cards accepted

—II


Sunday Supplement

Click on a region to go Click a region to go
media links

 EASY NAVIGATION

More virus alerts

BAD CREDIT?
Click Here

 

Google


The web
This site

 

11 September song

About Ireland

Get Wired News delivered to your inbox

Newsmedia On-line Music Store
Music Shop

 

Stellar competition

Ireland Map

Enter city
WEATHER

 

The Love Page
Love Page

 

 

 

Pet Korner
Pet Corner