Ethical challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic: experiences of journalists in Zimbabwe

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in 2019 negatively affected the normal way of doing things across the globe. Like all the facets of life, journalism was not spared. With COVID-19 restrictions in place, journalists had to adjust to a new normal. This chapter investigates the ethical challenges faced by journalists in the southern region of Zimbabwe during this pandemic. Through in-depth interviews with 12 purposively selected journalists operating in the region, the authors investigated how the pandemic impacted their operations. They argue that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of upholding ethical principles in an environment plagued with uncertainty and continued economic pressures. The chapter thus outlines the various challenges that were faced by journalists in the conduct of their duties during the pandemic and discusses how these challenges, in turn, presented several ethical pitfalls. Thus, by employing a framework of ubuntu journalism and Bourdieu’s field theory, the chapter probes the ethical challenges that journalists face during pandemics. Findings demonstrate that major ethical challenges that journalists faced related to biased information, fake sources and single perspectives in stories.