Club Panel: Reporting on the New Front Line for Journalists in Hong Kong – the COVID-19 Outbreak

After the safety issues surrounding the coverage of the Hong Kong protests, our panel will discuss the very different challenges facing journalists in reporting the COVID-19 outbreak. Journalists in mainland China and Hong Kong were the first to report on the outbreak and have been dealing with the logistics of working from home while trying to figure out the health, economic and social implications of the disease.

For television journalists with their offices closed, it has meant broadcasting from home and Skyping interviewees by mobile phone. Photographers have had to seek imaginative ways to capture images of a crisis that has been epitomized by face masks and empty supermarket shelves. Health writers have had to strike the balance between informing their readers while avoiding sensationalism. And fact-checkers have been dealing with an avalanche of fake news and rumours, some prominent examples of which we shall be looking at during the panel discussion.

KRISTIE LU STOUT: Kristie Lu Stout is an award-winning anchor and correspondent for CNN, based in Hong Kong. With two decades’ reporting from China and Hong Kong, she maintains a focus on how developments in the country are impacting the world. She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Stanford University.

ELIZABETH CHEUNG: Elizabeth Cheung has been a health reporter at the South China Morning Post since 2014 and has covered the coronavirus since the outbreak began. She also covers general medical news, breakthrough medical treatments and research, and government policy. Elizabeth has a master’s degree in development studies.

JEROME FAVRE: Jérôme Favre is a Hong Kong-based photographer for European Pressphoto Agency (epa). A French native, he has been living and shooting in Asia for over two decades and has covered presidential campaigns and elections, the 2003 SARS outbreak and numerous typhoons and natural disasters.

BADA KIM: Bada Kim is a fact-check editor for Agence France-Presse, focusing on disinformation in Asia. In London, she formerly led Dataminr’s Asia desk, specialising in digital verification, and held roles at the Associated Press’ live video desk and South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.