Media lags behind on HIV/AIDS and gender policies

Windhoek, 23 August: Less than ten percent of media houses in Southern Africa have HIV/AIDS policies, and an even lower proportion have gender policies, according to a study conducted by Gender Links as part of the Media Action Plan (MAP) on HIV/AIDS and Gender.

The study, released at the launch of MAP during the annual general meeting of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) covered 366 media houses in twelve SADC countries, or 91 percent of the total media houses in the region.

 

It found that of the 37 media houses with such policies, South Africa (18) and Zambia (12) had the highest number, although this is still relatively small compared to the media density in each country and especially in South Africa.

 

A number of media houses who said they had policies indicated that these are not in written form and only a few shared copies of their policies, citing confidentiality as the main reason for not doing so. Those that had not developed policies either cited resource constraints for not doing so, or said that they did not think that such policies are important for the media. 

 

The research found that almost all the existing policies focus on work place issues, such as hiring practices, avoiding stigma and discrimination, but did not touch on how these link to editorial policies, including how HIV/AIDS and gender considerations should be integrated into codes of ethics and editorial style books.

 

The report says that the findings give “added urgency and impetus” to the MAP, a multi-sector initiative led by the Southern African Editor’s Forum (SAEF) in partnership with several regional NGOs that work to promote diversity and professionalism in the media.

 

Gender Links and the Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSA) Network lead the policy sub-sector of MAP which aims to ensure that 80 percent of media houses in the region have HIV/AIDS and Gender policies by 2008.