Movie Script: Media and Coronavirus Pandemic in Oman
By Samuel Mundua, Daniel Jebakumar, Dawoud Al-Riyami; Aiman Al-Uwaisi, October, 2020
Voiceover
This video focuses its attention on the role played by the media in the Sultanate of Oman in covering the developments of COVID-19 in the country.
COVID-19 reached the shores of Oman quite late compared to its place of Origin. The first case of COVID-19 in Oman was registered on the 24th of February 2020, 86 days since reports of the disease started coming out of Wuhan, China. This was confirmed by the Ministry of Health on the 24th of February and reported by the World Health Organization through its situation report-36 released on the 25th of February 2020.
Here are the latest numbers for the people affected by the virus in Oman as on the date of this recording.
Here is a glimpse at how Oman is placed as compared to other countries in the world with respect to daily numbers.
The ministry of Health has released an official app named Tarassud+ that enables the public to keep track of the latest developments with regards to COVID-19 in the Sultanate in addition to its official website which provides timely updates and useful information about the disease.
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Mr. Khalfan Hamad Al Aghbari, Assistant Director of Public Relations and Patient Services, Royal Hospital Oman
Media has played an important role in tackling Covid-19 whether it is inside the health institution at the Royal Hospital or the Ministry of Health’s accounts. Also the Television, Radio and Print media have an enormous role in transferring the rules and regulations which are issued by the health institution, the Ministry of Health and the Supreme Committee.
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Mr. Abdullah Al Rubayi, English News Presenter, Oman TV
The role of the Sultanate of Oman Television as public service broadcaster is to keep the people in the country well informed and educated throughout this pandemic period and continue to do so in order for them to be well prepared to deal with the situation and overcome the challenges of the pandemic.
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Ms. Lakshmi Kothaneth, Journalist, Oman Observer
Journalists, I think, we are excited for News stories and this is indeed a crisis. And we realized I think, that journalists are very much part of the whole process of getting the message across to the public. So we became the bridge from the authorities and the officials to the society.
Mr. Hatim Harith Saif Al Abdisalaam, Presenter, Al Istiqama TV and Oman English FM
As you know that the Government of Oman had established a Supreme Committee that is responsible for the affairs of the pandemic known as Covid 19. And this committee is the regulatory authority that gives out information-The true information, the correct information, facts about the pandemic and the cases. _____________________________________________________________________________________
Voiceover
Journalists in Oman have enjoyed monitored access to testing and containment areas. But they are not superhuman. They are just as susceptible to the infection as anyone else. And yet they put themselves in harm’s way to bring out the stories to the public.
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Mr. Faris Bin Juma Al Wahibi
We could say that media people are constantly faced with the danger of getting the disease- same as the health staff who are working at the hospitals, the Royal Oman Police and the Army who are also playing a significant role in this situation. Likewise, media people are faced with enormous danger as they are reporting news from the ICU and interviewing patients infected with coronavirus.
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Voiceover
Sometimes, we don’t realize that the numbers and figures that are being talked about are actually human lives. It becomes imperative for the media to humanize the COVID story. The Omani news media has worked hard to show the people that make up the numbers in the COVID narrative.
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Mr. Hatim Harith Saif Al Abdisalaam
So we try our level best to go to the streets and even to look for stories that are touching, which reflect what is happening to the lives of people- how their lives are changed. And social media is one of the best platforms that you could get these stories (from).
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Mr. Khalfan Hamad Al Aghbari
Furthermore, the Media Committee has played its role in recording and sharing awareness videos or any instructions be the Infectious Disease Specialists and from those who are treating COVID-19 patients.
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Mr. Faris Bin Juma Al Wahibi
I, as a field reporter, report details on several topics from different hospitals, including the number of registered cases and about the high stress on health staff. I also follow up on the developments in the regulations issued by the Supreme Committee.
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Voiceover
One of the biggest challenges for the citizens of Oman, who are a tightly knit community, is the restrictions that have been imposed on communal gatherings. The onus of making up for the lack of social gatherings fell on the Omani media.
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Mr. Hatim Harith Saif Al Abdisalaam
When it came through the festive season, it became difficult. People were not able to comprehend that (you know) “if it is just me and my wife in the house, that’s it. Our Eid this year, our festival is just the two of us.” But, nevertheless, channels, media channels were very very active in broadcasting what happens in some of the homes and reminding people of the oneness and keeping the spirit of the festival for people to be together.
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Voiceover
But did the media outlets face any challenges at all? Or was it just like any other day?
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Ms. Lakshmi Kothaneth
We have to be cautious not to jump into conclusions or even create sensational stories because we have to think of the psychology of the people. Whether our freedom was affected as journalists or the media, I don’t think so. But of course there were limitations as print went out of circulation. But I think it was innovative way for journalists and establishments, newspapers like Oman Observer to think ahead and go in full swing to the social media and electronic media- We had the website, we had E-paper daily throughout the close down and when the restrictions were on print media. We also introduced podcasts and this went out through all our social media platforms including Whatsapp which is very popular in Oman.
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Voiceover
While the narrative of the state run media outlets was similar to the one that we just heard, private media outlets have had a different hill to climb.
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Mr. Hatim Harith Saif Al Abdisalaam
Information is very valuable. And timely information is valuable. One of the challenges is that most of the time we have to wait for the mainstream channels that are through the Government to submit or to present the rightful facts and information and then we can take the information from them and post it on our channels.
There’s a lot of measures that have affected our operation as a media agency. You know working in the media is working as a team. But during this pandemic we had to work individually in our homes. So we were multi-tasking; We were very careful. And we only did physical interviews when they are extremely necessary to cover the story. But mostly everything was done online to safeguard our public and ourselves as well.
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Voiceover
Unlike the media outlets in many other countries, the Omani media has chosen to convey a unified message to the people. So there has been no room for sensational news. The media along with the government has managed to keep rumors to a very negligible minimum.
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Mr. Abdullah Al Rubayi
Oman television channel brings to the attention of the public the importance of following information from the official sources as this information would have been scrutinized specifically to be released to the public for the benefit of one and all.
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Mr. Khalfan Hamad Al Aghbari
Oman TV is one of the main mediums that the majority of people depend on. We thank all other mediums from individual or institutional level. It is obvious that media played a major role in spreading awareness among the public which helped in reducing the spread of the disease.