Global Media AIDS Initiative - Global

The campaign launch on January 15 2004 indicated the strategic direction of the initiative: partnership, cooperation, and commitment. Twenty-two chief executives attended a roundtable at UN headquarters in New York for a discussion, led by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, on how media can use their resources to raise awareness about and gain broader support for the fight against the disease. The executives came from the BBC (United Kingdom), Gazprom-Media (Russia), Japan Broadcasting Corporation, the Voice of Nigeria, South African Broadcasting Corporation, China Central Television, Univision (Latin America), Globo International (Brazil), Prasar Bharati (India), and several USA-based companies including Time Warner, Viacom, MTV, Black Entertainment Television, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Motion Picture Association of America.

Delivering the keynote address, Bill Gates, co-founder of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, highlighted partnership - between the business community, governments, and civil society - as a central part of the campaign's strategy, saying "I think the challenge for all of you is to think about how to raise visibility. The AIDS story is not just a bad news story; it's a story about incredible people doing this scientific discovery...It's a story of volunteers, it's a story of people persevering, it's a story of families coming together. There's so much that's positive about this that it doesn't just have to be viewed as something that is incredibly negative".

In his remarks, Kofi Annan stressed the importance of communication. He noted that "in the world of AIDS, silence is death. As broadcasters, you can bring the disease out of the shadows and get people talking about it in an open, informed way." Annan also pointed out that "Education and entertainment are not mutually exclusive...In several regions, television dramas have been used to bring AIDS awareness to wider audiences than traditional health promotion could ever hope to reach..." Like Gates, Annan emphasised collaboration: "More widely, you can join together to form partnerships that draw on shared reach and resources, as some of you have already done. You can reach out to other organizations, such as government departments, non-governmental organizations and civil society groups. You can offer resources and access to airtime, while your partners can provide expertise..."

The following media strategies emerged from the discussion:

• designating the fight against HIV/AIDS as an overall corporate priority;
• committing substantial time and/or space to the issue, including programming/editorial and advertising;
• providing current news coverage of the epidemic, both globally and locally;
• supporting efforts to train reporters and producers to cover the epidemic;
• supporting the development and broadcast of HIV/AIDS-related shows, films, and documentaries;
• encouraging the integration of HIV/AIDS-themes in storylines;
• making content addressing HIV/AIDS available rights-free to other outlets; and
• providing comprehensive workforce education efforts about HIV.

At the close of the session, the United Nations circulated a declaration for the executives to sign pledging to use "our companies to expand public knowledge and understanding about HIV/AIDS." All 22 executives attending the roundtable signed this statement of support.

HIV/AIDS.

According to UNAIDS, a large percentage of people in some of the worst affected regions have never heard of the disease. The group cites studies indicating that in 21% of African countries more than 60% of girls were found to have at least one major misconception about the virus or were unaware of its existence. In addition, UNAIDS stresses, stigmatisation and discrimination against people living with HIV continue to be among the greatest barriers to preventing the spread of new infections and to providing adequate care and support.

Videos of the proceedings and a UN radio report may be viewed at this link.