Newspaper companies adopt measures to tackle the spread of COVID 19 through newspapers.

INN/Chennai, @Infodeaofficial

Since the Coronavirus outbreak in India, messages claiming, newspapers should be avoided as it can be a means to spread the coronavirus, started circulating in social media, many people stopped taking newspapers after this suspicion went viral.

But the print media house in Tamil Nadu has taken a unique initiative to deal with this, here the newspaper dealers and hawkers are now handling newspapers using masks, gloves, and sanitizers. The media house is also trying to make the people aware of this hoax.

A newspaper is a medium people prefer to keep themselves updated and informed of the happenings around the world. When Team Infodea investigated this, it found that this rumor was widely circulated among the residents of Chennai as well. Many people said they saw many such messages in WhatsApp.

Chennai resident Rinku Sanklecha says, “We are still taking newspapers, But I take great care before bringing the newspaper inside the house”, he handles it with the help of tongs. After that, every page of it is ironed well. Most of the people have started reading e-paper since this false news went viral.

She says, “But without a newspaper, my husband’s day is not complete, so I adopted these precautionary measures into practice. Many people living in our complex have stopped taking newspapers, they say that they will start taking newspapers at home only after the Corona epidemic”.

The same newspaper companies say, that the corona does not spread through the newspaper. The confusion is being spread among people about this., the companies are investigating who is behind all these fake fiasco. Madhu Nair, the circulation 

head of the Times of India, says  ” Machine is used for newspapers from printing to loading.  It is touched only at the dealer’s and distributor’s level. However, because of these rumors, the circulation has decreased slightly. But to get rid of all these confusions from people’s minds, we are distributing masks, gloves, and sanitizers to the hawkers.

These newspaper dealers and hawkers have been facing a lot of trouble since the lockdown started. K Devendran, president of the Tamil Nadu News Paper Vendor Association, says, “Most of the hawkers who went out on the road in the first few days had to become victims of the police’s hymn. We talked to the police officers trying to understand the police personnel, but no one listened to us. Police also used lathis on many people. In view of this situation, many hawkers quit working.

Neelakandan, the South India Circulation Head of Tamil daily newspaper Dinamalar, tells us that on the second day of the lock-down, one of their hawkers was beaten up by the police in Kodambakkam area. After this, we published the news, demanding to know who has given police the right to beat their employees.

The day after this news was published, the Chief Minister held a meeting with the top police officers and issued instructions that the police should not adopt barbaric attitude with any hawker. Since then it has become easier for our hawkers to work.

These newspaper dealers and hawkers have been facing a lot of trouble since the lockdown started. K Devendran, president of the Tamil

Nadu News Paper Vendor Association, says, “most of the hawkers who went out on the road in the first few days had to become victims of the police’s action. We talked to the police officers, tried to make them understand the situation,  but no one listened to us. Police also used lathis on many people. In view of this situation, many hawkers quit working.”

BP Goswami, the editor-in-chief of Dakshin Prakash, the south Hindi newspaper daily, says that in the

early days of the lock-down there were problems in sending newspapers outside Chennai. A few days later the situation improved but we are still having trouble sending newspapers to some places. Many people have stopped taking newspapers after this misinformation went viral.