The Juntos Photo Coop seeks an equitable industry and a set of baseline standards that will improve safety and ensure dignity for all journalists risking their health to document the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of these obvious standards feel long overdue, and while the journalism industry is in flux, we have a chance to effect immediate change. We as an industry must ensure reporters can stay physically and mentally safe and fiscally afloat as they face uncertainty and risk in the coming months. If the industry fails, only the most well-off journalists will remain.

We are optimistic that this can be an opportunity to be more responsible, caring and cooperative with the communities with whom we are working to tell stories. We must consider their needs at the same time as our own; we are all seeing, in real time, how these connections determine our collective well-being. If outlets are not able to provide adequate resources or protections for their staff and freelancers, then they are not in a position to hire. Current CDC standards must dictate our behavior. Journalists in the field need to act as though we are carriers after traveling from hot spots. We should quarantine ourselves regardless of symptoms at the point of arrival. Building in a fourteen-day waiting period to quarantine before beginning projects is now a necessity when traveling from cities with high rates of infection into areas where healthcare infrastructure is already pressed and could mean compromising an undetermined number of lives. Local journalists, who are a part of these communities, should be considered first.  They can better understand the risks involved in a way that is critical to their community care. 

We know as visual journalists, our instinct is to head toward the story. We know journalists are hurting financially, and the COVID-19 crisis exacerbates issues we are already facing together. We cannot ask that people put themselves at risk of eviction or starvation, and we know that these are the choices many of us will face shortly. If you are a hiring editor, please consider hiring freelancers to develop pitches or research, if you cannot send us to a location at this time. 

As a group, freelance journalists are frequently uninsured or underinsured. Many independent journalists face barriers to entry in the industry stemming from race, gender expression, sexuality and immigration status among other reasons. Loss of work and healthcare inequality disproportionately affects groups already fighting for greater representation.The people putting themselves at the most risk often stand to lose the most. 

Guidelines for hiring editors during the COVID-19 crisis: 

• Maintain strong communication and a frank discussion of risk assessment.

• Hire reporters as local to the story as possible.

• Build the cost of PPE into the cost of hiring freelancers.

• Ensure a long-term plan of quarantine and sanitation harm reduction. 

• Treat this like any other front line or hostile environment.

• Check up on freelancers’ mental health.

• Pay expenses up front and pay invoices as soon as possible.

• If the reporter is traveling, build in quarantine time and pay the reporter for that period. 

• Document all field contacts in order to trace back for notification, should anyone get sick.

• Act as a liaison and obtain testing and pay for hospitalization if/when a reporter becomes ill

• Enact an emergency extension of health insurance to W-9 workers.

• Continue to pay freelancers a day rate for the duration of any sickness. 

Journalism at its best espouses standards of integrity and respect. We hope to see these values honored to help us build the kind of future we all know is possible. We call on our fellow freelancers to come together, raise the standards of our industry, and ensure that we are truly protecting and supporting one another at a time where it is more critical than ever.

Love and solidarity, 

Juntos Photo Coop