November 29 On the annual commemoration of World AIDS Day this Friday, December 1st, the news media around the world will focus their attention on HIV/AIDS. But lost in the annual headlines and sound bites is the fact that day-to-day coverage of HIV/AIDS worldwide leaves much to be desired in both quality and quantity, according to a report issued today.

The report is issued by Internews Network's Local Voices project, in collaboration with two of the leading international networks on HIV/AIDS, the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+), and the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO). It analyzes responses from people living with HIV and frontline AIDS care and service providers from 44 countries who were asked their views on local news coverage on HIV/AIDS.

According to the report, "Twenty-five years since the first news stories on HIV surfaced, media outlets are still struggling to report news on HIV/AIDS accurately, with depth and sensitivity-especially in developing countries that are most affected by HIV."

More than 300 respondents from two online surveys, focus groups in three countries, and several interviews said that although reporting on HIV/AIDS has improved somewhat over the last five to ten years, the quality of media coverage in their countries is still mainly infrequent and inaccurate.

According to the report, "Voice and Visibility: Frontline perspectives on how the global news media reports on HIV/AIDS," one problem is that reporters and editors still tend to stigmatize HIV/AIDS and People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV). A focus group respondent in Ukraine said, "Journalists often request to use HIV-positive children in films or programs and ask HIV-positive people to tell negative and terrifying stories about their lives-even if they are not true."

Josephine Kamara, a journalist and current Resident Advisor for Internews Nigeria, said, "The idea to survey PLHIV and frontline AIDS workers on how they view media coverage of their issues arose from our experience working with journalists on the ground in developing countries. In Nigeria for example, many of the journalists we train have never met someone openly living with HIV until they attend one of our HIV reporting workshops, and it is the rare journalist who has ever invited an HIV-positive person to be a lead source in a story on HIV/AIDS."

Internews Network launched its HIV/AIDS-focused Local Voices project in 2002, in Nigeria and Kenya, with support from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and continuing support from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), to train and support local radio journalists, talk show hosts and DJs to improve their reporting and programming on issues related to HIV/ AIDS. Since then, Local Voices projects have expanded to Ethiopia, India, and C?te d'Ivoire, and with funding from the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), Internews Europe's "Turnaround Time" project focuses on improving HIV/AIDS coverage in the Mekong region.

The Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+) is a global network for and by people living with HIV. GNP+ works closely with six regional networks of people living with HIV in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and North America. The overall aim of GNP+ (www.gnpplus.net) is to improve the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS.

The International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO) mobilizes and supports diverse community organizations to build an effective global response to HIV and AIDS. Through its work, ICASO (www.icaso.org) seeks to build community sector capacity to directly advocate for its own needs, to mobilize and strengthen community sector partnerships and networks, and to advocate for the effective implementation of universal access to comprehensive HIV and AIDS services.

The "Voice and Visibility" report was made possible by grants from USAID and PEPFAR to Internews Network.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Ron MacInnis, Internews Network's Project Director for Health Journalism, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it