CBS and The Associated Press said in statements that they were taking precautions to protect their inauguration reporters, while Reuters said it had “redoubled” its safety efforts before, during and after the presidential election. Time magazine said it was dispatching two of its journalists with conflict experience, Kim Dozier and Simon Shuster, to help cover the event.
The New York Times is sending nearly all of its reporters in Washington to cover the inauguration, and many of them have experience reporting in war zones “given that the national security team and Pentagon correspondents are based in the bureau,” Elisabeth Bumiller, assistant managing editor and Washington bureau chief, said in a statement.
Hugh Brumfitt, the managing director of the British company Insurance For, said he had recently seen “a significant increase” in requests from news outlets for insurance coverage for their journalists.
“What is very interesting is that clients have been extending the coverage for a few days after the inauguration, possibly anticipating further marches,” he wrote in an email.
Richard Hall, the senior U.S. correspondent for the British news site The Independent, covered the Syrian civil war and the Islamic State as a correspondent based in Beirut, Lebanon. Mr. Hall, who will be in Washington for the inauguration, said he planned to stay in constant communication with his colleagues in a WhatsApp group.
“I’m a white man, and I can kind of just blend into the crowd, which is what I did when the Capitol protests were going on,” he said. “I’m fully aware that most journalists and especially photographers and videographers don’t have that privilege.”
Vice News will have security advisers with its journalists, and protective equipment will be available, said Sebastian Walker, the outlet’s Washington bureau chief.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/business/media/journalists-inauguration.html
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