Speakers from the world media organizations talked about media strategies to help combat HIV/AIDS epidemics.
Kuala Lumpur: Recognizing the importance and power of mass media in responding to HIV/AIDS epidemics, hundreds of experts, researchers and policy makers around the globe met with media outlets and practitioners from different nations in Malaysia to more encourage media to help fight the global crisis, saying that “the Era of Participatory Media”
After 25 years since the HIV discovery, 40 million people are infected and in many countries, AIDS has become the leading cause of death. Though the number of people who die of sickness related with AIDS is dramatically decline, fresh infections of HIV is on the growth and HIV/AIDS is no longer simply a health problem, but it is a pandemic becoming a global socio-economic disaster. In such challenges, the one-week conference on May 27-31 in Kuala Lumpur considered media as the mainstay in achieving the target of reducing the crisis.
The gathering was the crucial discussion for media in the Asia-Pacific and every corner of the world at the time of the evolution of new media -- especially TV, radio, iPod, Blog, Pod casting, email, text messages, telephone videos, and so on, to exchange their ideas and initiatives to find out strategies to help eradicate HIV/AIDS; to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the present strategies; and to discuss the strategies against HIV/AIDS in the future.
Reading out his Deputy Prime Minister’s speech at the conference, Malaysian Information Minister Y.B. Datuk Zainuddin Maidin said “Dialogues can help us deal with poverty, illiteracy, HIV and AIDS and ill health….The global media dialogues that you have started here today is a presentation of the dialogue between civilizations, between continents, between countries, between different affiliations and varied identities... Because media is the voice of people that people listen to and sometimes, it is the voice of the people.”
The conference focused on several questions asking that “Has media kept pace with the response of the International agencies and scientists? Can media put an end to discrimination against HIV positive people by encouraging social inclusiveness and replace the fear and the denial of HIV and AIDS? How can we media professionals respond to the challenge of HIV? How best can we contribute to reducing the rate of infection to half its present rate?”.
In responding to the questions, speakers from the global media organizations similarly voiced that “raising better awareness, education, bringing accurate information and message to the public without sensationalism” through their media coverage are the core strategies to combat the problem while some others said “bringing the untold stories, promoting women rights and empowerment with rights of choice, raising awareness of safe sex and reproductive health” are the key massages.
Dak Mpofu, South African Broadcasting Corporation and Chair of the Global Media AIDS Initiative, said solving the crisis is not for only doctors, physicians, GO and NGO workers but media can also successfully involve in the fields. He said media have powerful messages with fact and quality to the public to change their attitudes regarding HIV/AIDS and that the media must never say there is “cure” for HIV/AIDS in the world.
Sharing her opinion as one of the panelists at the conference, Ms. Mao Xhzhi, a reporter of China Central Television, said that responding to HIV/AIDS epidemics, media have two main roles -- outreaching message on the risk to the public and bringing the fact information on problems at the grassroots to the government level so that it can take appropriate measures to respond to the crisis.
At the conference, slogans were also raised such as “It’s time to share: Men get on board for AIDS action now!” and “It’s time to listen: give mothers and babies a voice!” Journalists agreed that they would play more in “the broad-based strategy to contain the spread of HIV by bringing practical knowledge to the public with the widest coverage and that the task has to be done in close cooperation with specialists, and to avoid wrong, ineffective or counter-productive messages being disseminated.”
However, media participants expressed their concerns over the governments’ pressure on free press, strict culture and national taboo and such problems are still the main obstacles for media to bring the facts to their audiences.
According to the event organizers, more than 500 media owners and practitioners, government officials, policymakers, academic and senior representatives from development institutions of over 60 countries from Asia, Pacific, Africa, America and Europe participated in the media summit. It was organized by Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development along with other partners.
Besides the topic of HIV/AIDS, the conference was also followed by Asia Media Summit 2007 to focus on the future of Public Service Broadcast Media and their participatory task in responding to other crisis like discrimination, women and gender issues, children violence, minority integration, environment, and climate change, especially the UN Millennium Development Goals. Story and picture by Chhay Sophal.
