HYDERABAD: The Indian Journalists’ Union (IJU) has expressed serious concern over reports that the newspaper circulation network has been disrupted in several parts of the country in the wake of the coronavirus.
It demanded that the media, particularly the small and medium newspapers, should be included in the stimulus financial package announced by the Union Government on Thursday as they were worst hit.
Health insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh per person announced for healthcare workers should also be extended to journalists, who have been working despite the lockdown.
In a statement issued here on Thursday, IJU president K Sreenivas Reddy and secretary-general Balwinder Singh Jammu said as fake information started circulating on social media about Coronavirus being transmitted through newspaper, several agents refused to deliver the copies in the last few days. This, despite the Union government and experts denied it as false.
The IJU leaders urged the Centre and the State governments to take immediate steps to ensure effective functioning of the newspaper circulation network.
The IJU also demanded that the State governments take immediate steps to stop attacks on journalists by the police in the name of enforcing lockdown.