COVID-19: Global coverage for a pandemic

There is little doubt that late 2019 will be remembered in world history as the date when COVID-19, the disease caused by a previously unknown virus, brought an unprecedented challenge to human societies and reshaped global relations. Since then, COVID-19 continues to dominate world news and capture the attention of citizens and governments alike. This is a testimony to the March 11 decision by the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare COVID-19 a pandemic. A pandemic can be defined as an epidemic that spreads across the world much faster than expected and affects people who do not have immunity to fight it. As an international network of reporters present across the world and speaking over 100 languages, Global Voices rose to the occasion in January 2020 and started to report on the issue in China, rapidly expanding coverage to address the various consequences of COVID-19. Given the scale and scope of the pandemic, we are now organizing our coverage based on regions (with the most recent story at the top of each section) for easier navigation.

Our goal is to present the various ways in which COVID-19 affects human and digital rights, freedom of expression, causes more mis- and disinformation, and challenges existing systems of media ecology, public health, governance, politics, global economy – from a local perspective, while keeping in mind our global readership. In this effort, we remain particularly vigilant to protect the safety and well-being of individuals and communities unfairly targeted because of a real or perceived association with COVID-19,