Journalists wanting to take photographs, or conduct interviews and video recordings at an Ebola health care facilities in Liberia will now be required to secure written permission from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Assistant Health Minister and head of the Ebola incident management team disclosed.
According, report said the new media access policy seeks to protect the privacy of patients and healthcare workers and to protect the health and safety of both Liberians and international journalists.
The policy recognizes the importance of increasing local, national and international understanding of the status of the health care system in Liberia and also identifies the patient care as the overriding priority for every healthcare facility. The policy covers all interviews written or recorded on video and audio tapes that occur within the grounds of a health care facility or areas outside the parameter of a healthcare facility to be restricted.
“This policy also covers communication from health care facility employees to any news or commercial media representative. The policy outlines procedures for news organizations to secure approval to take videos or still photography or conduct interviews at the healthcare facility during the period of the national Ebola response.”
News, interviews, filming, recording, photography, maybe conducted only with written approval from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. Authorities to approve such written request may delegate to county health officers in the field or the county in which the facility is located.
And we will give this to the Ministry of Information to make sure that this is given to foreign journalists coming into the country and local press so that we respect the dignity of our patients.
We’ve noted with great concerns that photographs have been taken in treatment centers while patients are going in and being attended to by doctors and will take photographs of those patients, put them on either the international wire or local news wires. That’s evading the privacy, the autonomy and respect and dignity of patients,” he said.
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