Science, Technology, and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has promised that the vaccination exercise for journalists will begin as soon as Wednesday (June 9).
This was amid a campaign by media personnel complaining about delays for their Covid-19 vaccination which had been promised since April.
“Starting today, there will be media practitioners who will get their appointments. However, the list of the total number of media practitioners is still being checked at this final stage,” Khairy was quoted as saying by Berita Harian.
Members of the press started the #CucukMYPress and #VaccineforMediaMY hashtags on Twitter yesterday in an effort to get the government to live up to its commitment to vaccinate media practitioners.
This comes after vaccination for media practitioners under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) was delayed for several months, even though the government said it recognised media practitioners as frontliners.
New Straits Times journalist Teh Athira Yusof was one of the first few to tweet under the hashtag, saying that media practitioners have continued carrying out their duties since the beginning of the pandemic.
“We are merely asking to know when we will get the vaccine to protect ourselves and our families.
“Journalists, photographers, camera operators, producers, and editors have exercised our duties covering the pandemic from day one,” she tweeted last night.
Media group Gerakan Media Merdeka (Geramm) also tweeted a template image with the words ‘Media Has Not Been Vaccinated’ above an empty white square so that people can edit their images onto it.
The group urged the government to vaccinate members of the press immediately and has been retweeting other postings using the two hashtags.
Independent journalist Tehmina Kaoosji also tweeted that the media is a "communications lifeline" but the lives of media practitioners are still at risk.
“Without any vaccine rollout priority for media, the anxiety for our own health amidst doing our jobs has become a daily routine.
“This is not acceptable. Neither is it strategic if the media workers covering Covid-19 are the ones most vulnerable to it, even when we have the vaccines available,” she said.
Meanwhile, Parti Pejuang Tanah Air pointed out that the inoculation for members of the press has been delayed for several months.
“Strangely, all sorts of government programmes focusing on its efforts in handling Covid-19 have been organised, which require the presence of media practitioners for coverage and generally require physical attendance.
“It looks like all the effort and risks taken and the sacrifice made by media practitioners have not been taken into consideration,” said Pejuang pro-tem information chief Ulya Aqamah Husamudin in a statement today.
He said members of the press often set aside their personal safety while carrying out their duties on the field, including reporting from within hospitals, the morgue, and at funerals of Covid-19 victims.
As such, he urged the government to immediately vaccinate media practitioners.
“The media are also frontliners. Help lighten their workload as the channel of information to the rakyat (citizens),” he said.
The government initially said members of the press may be included in Phase 2 of the NIP, which started in April this year.
On April 28, Khairy announced there was a list of 1,500 media practitioners who would be vaccinated in May.
Then, at the end of May, Khairy revealed that the list had grown to a total of 5,867 media practitioners from 114 registered agencies.
A few days later, he said they will start receiving their vaccine appointments from the first week of June. - Mkini
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