The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) has appealed to the Central government to treat journalists as frontline warriors and enable them to get the COVID-19 vaccine on a priority basis.In a statement issued on Sunday, IJU president K. Sreenivas Reddy and Secretary General Balwinder Singh Jammu welcomed the government’s decision to provide the vaccine free of cost to the public at all government hospitals and also to peg the cost at private hospitals at just Rs 250 per dose.The IJU office bearers drew the government’s attention to the fact that hundreds of journalists across the country had contracted the coronavirus while on duty and lost their lives.
Observing that the fight against the pandemic wouldn’t have succeeded the way it did in India without the contribution of journalists, they said that reporting from ground zero made journalists vulnerable like other frontline warriors.Since there is still a long way to go in the fight against coronavirus, IJU is of the opinion that it’s the duty of the government to provide working journalists with vaccine shield. They also urged the Centre to issue suitable instructions to all states and union territories to provide the jab to journalists on a priority basis.
