MEND attends a meeting organised by ITV News to review COVID19 coverage

Categories: Past Event Articles
Monday June 01 2020
MEND was asked to attend a meeting organised by ITV news to review ITV coverage of COVID19. The purpose of the meeting was to put forward suggestions to improve its coverage, ensuring it is inclusive and informative. Indeed, ITV news achieved the balance between covering the important information that the public needs to know and covering many positive human stories to lighten the intensity of the news and to inspire the public to help one another.
In the meeting, MEND stated that fact checks are imperative in such a crisis. In addition, ITV news needs to diversify the news by including positive stories from Muslim and BME communities.
In addition to the positive stories, MEND suggested broadcasting messages that target Muslim and BME communities that can help them overcome this crisis. For example, if there are suggested scientific evidence that vitamin D deficiency may contribute to the high number of deaths in BME communities, then it is recommended to broadcast ads verified by the Department of Health and Social Care that encourage BME communities to take vitamin D.
Furthermore, MEND emphasised on the importance of covering the rise of Islamophobia and xenophobia in the social media and the need to counter the Islamophobic narratives that target the Muslim communities. MEND also highlighted the need to show solidarity with the Chinese communities who have been subject to most of these hate crimes with the current COVID19 crisis.