In international communications agency with African content, APO Group, has announced that it will support the dissemination of Coronavirus-related information from African governments to the media and public.
APO Group, in a statement issued from its Lausanne, Switzerland base on Monday, said it would aggregate and distribute all relevant content issued by African governments for free through its distribution service and a specially-designed Coronavirus tag.
It stated that government-issued information would be distributed in English, French, Portuguese, and Arabic, stressing that getting official information from African governments out to the press and public was vital in helping to combat the current pandemic
The statement disclosed that as the largest agency in Africa, APO Group had been reaching more than 400,000 journalists working in or reporting on the continent.
“Dozens of health ministries will benefit from the programme immediately, including: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
It said it would distribute press releases from the World Health Organisation (WHO), WHO Regional Office for Africa and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
“Keeping the public informed accurately about COVID-19 is crucial,” the group stated, quoting Dr. Zabulon Yoti, Acting Regional Emergencies Director for WHO in Africa.
READ ALSO: Coronavirus: WHO Deploys Experts To Support Nigeria’s Response Plan
APO Group CEO, Lionel Reina, stressed, “These efforts by media organisations will help disseminate potentially life-saving information.
“It is critical that African governments have a tool for their voices to be heard.
“In dedicating internal resources to managing this free press release distribution service and special tag in www.Africa-Newsroom.com we are helping African governments communicate their story to domestic and international audiences and we are contributing to the global fight against the virus in the best way we can.
“We believe in the power of community, which is why we’re working collaboratively with African governments, media organisations, and journalists to help communicate reliable information about the Coronavirus.”
It added that as the pandemic escalates, timely, reliable communication would play an important role in helping populations prepare and take as many preventative measures as possible.
It stressed: “The circulation of misinformation and rumours about the virus poses an enormous risk, as the WHO Director-General recently emphasized.
“Some of the world’s largest social media companies recently pledged to work together to remove misleading posts from their platforms, and journalists and media organisations are working collaboratively to aggregate accurate, officially-sourced news to better inform the public.”
