31st Annual Gathering and 4th AIBD General Conference

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Educational and Ethical Aspects of
BroadcastingWhose ResponsibilityWhose Agenda
ROLE OF THE MEDIA ON HIV/AIDS

• 31st Annual Gathering and 4th AIBD General
  Conference
• 26-30 July 2005, Brunei

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OVERVIEW

• When you are working to combat a disastrous and
  growing emergency, you should use every tool at
  your disposal. HIV/AIDS is the worst epidemic
  humanity has ever faced. It has spread further,
  faster and with more catastrophic long-term
  effects than any other disease. Its impact has
  become a devastating obstacle to development.
  Broadcast media have tremendous reach and
  influence, particularly with young people, who
  represent the future and who are the key to any
  successful fight against HIV/AIDS. We must seek
  to engage these powerful organizations as full
  partners in the fight to halt HIV/AIDS through
  awareness, prevention, and education.
• Kofi Annan, Secretary General, United Nations

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CONCEPT HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

• Human Development is about widening the range of
  choices for people to pursue economic, social,
  cultural and political by enhancing their
  capabilities to shape their lives as they wish
  and enabling them to live in dignity, a long and
  healthy life, to obtain education and further
  knowledge, to have control over key resources, to
  engage in a productive employment of his or her
  choice, and to participate effectively in
  activities of community and the state.
• Source Nepal Human Development Report 2001 on
  Poverty Reduction and Governance

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WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGE?

• These include
• widespread lack of awareness in the cases of
  some Asian countries, a large proportion of young
  people have never heard of AIDS
• the triangle of denial, stigma and
  discrimination many people worldwide have not
  yet accepted that the risk of contracting HIV
  applies to them
• equally damaging to the effort to disseminate
  factual information about the epidemic is the
  belief that HIV/AIDS is something that happens to
  people who are immoral and socially deviant
• the impact of gender inequality because women
  often lack freedom of choice, they sometimes find
  it harder to avoid HIV infection.
• Source The Media and HIV AIDS Making a
  Difference

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MEDIA AND HIV/AIDS

• Media practitioners on the ground can provide
  the clearest and strongest reflections of what is
  truly happening in the region.
• We need to acknowledge the effective role that
  the media can play to channel appropriate
  information and highlight the challenges that are
  facing the region, especially in the context of
  changing the unfounded stereotypes of people
  living with HIV/AIDS.
• The media have an essential role to play in
  reversing the progression of HIV as education to
  promote awareness of HIV/AIDS is a key factor in
  the fight against the disease.
• All this however requires a clear understanding
  of the challenges and the obstacles to widespread
  and effective HIV-prevention education.

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STRENGHTS OF THE MEDIA

• Fosters greater openness, transparency and
  accountability in government
• Strengthens civil society participation and
  advocacy
• Fosters participatory and good governance
• The public itself is growing more aware and
  demanding in its expectations for their
  respective governments to respond to their needs
  and concerns.

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REALITY CHECK

• Development issues are rarely covered by media.
• Development issues are seldom front-page news.
• International medias attention for development
  issues is even more of a problem.
• Electronic media has proved easier to work with
  than print.
• Development stories are complex and tend to be
  covered in long articles.
• With freedom comes responsibility - sometimes,
  objective reportage of facts is compromised in
  the process. The media should expose
  shortcomings, but with a fair and balanced
  approach.

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HOW CAN THE MEDIA ASSIST?

• The media should make AIDS programming a key
  part of
• their output and, indeed, their corporate
  strategy. This can be done in a number of ways,
  including
• giving the epidemic prominent news coverage
• dedicating airtime/space to HIV/AIDS public
  service messages
• supporting the broadcasting of HIV/AIDS special
  programming
• supporting the development of AIDS storylines in
  existing programming
• making public service messages and original
  programming
• available to other outlets on a rights-free
  basis.
• Source The Media and HIV AIDS Making a
  Difference

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WHERE WE COME IN

• Assistance in identifying stories - providing
  access to global authoritative sources and expert
  contacts.
• Resources are scarce for reporters, fund travel/
  partner to do several development stories in
  addition to their main report.
• Provide stories that originate from the field.
• Role is firstly as advocates, but also performs
  as analysts.
• UNDP can provide footage for news agencies from
  places with difficult access.
• Asian countries view press as hostile and overly
  aggressive, UNDP can help by facilitating contact
  between reporters and national officials.

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GLOBAL MEDIA AIDS INITIATIVE

• "The coming together of media organizations to
  harness their collective power to the fight
  against AIDS is one of the most important
  partnerships forged to date. The media has the
  unparalleled ability to save millions of lives by
  providing them with vital life saving information
  on AIDS and creating a supporting environment for
  social change."
• Source Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director.

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HIV/AIDS REPORTS

• UNDP-APDIP, the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting
  Union (ABU), MTV Networks International and
  Kaiser Family Foundation will join hands with 12
  television producers in the Asia Pacific region
  on the co-production of HIV/AIDS Reports -- a
  series of made for television programming to
  raise awareness of the global health epidemic
  drawing on specific grass-root initiatives in the
  region.
• Participating broadcast journalists will each
  create segments for use by all participating
  broadcasters as individual short-form programmes.
  The HIV/AIDS Reports will focus on the
  implications of the epidemic in the contributing
  producers home country, with an emphasis on the
  human or social dimension. Completed productions
  will be available for exchange between the
  participating broadcasters as well as being made
  available rights free to all ABU member
  broadcasters.

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THANK YOU

• Shahid Akhtar
• shahid_at_apdip.net
• Asia-Pacific Development Information
  Programme,UNDP Regional Centre in
  Bangkok,United Nations Service Building,3rd
  Floor, Rajdamnern Nok Avenue,Bangkok 10200,
  Thailand