RIGHTS-MALAWI: Media Workers Shun Government Call for HIV/AIDS Testing

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Brian Ligomeka

BLANTYRE, Sep 22 2003 (IPS) - Media workers in Malawi have responded negatively to a call by the government for them to act as community role models and go for HIV/AIDS voluntary counselling and testing.

The media workers, who include media managers, editors, broadcasters and reporters in Malawi’s commercial city of Blantyre rejected the call saying they feared stigmatisation. The country’s minister of information, Bernard Chisale, recently challenged journalists to go for an HIV test so that they could act as role models in the campaign for behavioural change.

Chisale, speaking at the launch of HIV/Aids Behavioural Change Intervention Strategy Project, said journalists had a crucial role to play in changing people’s behaviour through their articles and programmes.

"I wish people from Malawi AIDS Counselling Resource Organisation – MACRO – were here. They should have had you tested for the disease," Chisale told the journalists. He added that the masses would take journalists seriously if they practised what they write.

But random interviews revealed that most Malawian media workers are reluctant to go for HIV tests. Daily Times senior journalist Anthony Kasunda said he would not go for a test because of the stigma attached to getting a positive result. "People will be saying there goes the HIV positive journalist. I would not want to be subjected to such ridicule," he said.

Malawi News journalist, Caroline Somanje, said the information minister had no right to force people to go for a test. "Going for a test is one’s choice. One has to be prepared psychologically. People have died after being told that they are HIV positive just because they went for a test when they were not ready. In fact everybody should be a role model," she said.

Malawi Broadcasting Corporation journalist, Charles Vintula, said he supported the idea of testing but said he would not want to be paraded as a role model. He said some NGOs take advantage of people who declare their status by making money through parading them in the villages. "I would only want to be involved in HIV/Aids activities where I would talk about my status for free of charge," he said.

A female journalist from the Blantyre based privately owned Capital Radio FM, Milly Kafuka, said she would not want to go for a test just because she was a journalist. "I think the most important thing is to report accurately about the scourge because even if I am tested it would not change anything. People would not know my status and that would not change anything. But I would rather concentrate on reporting effectively," she said.

Chisale said they decided to institute the project after they had realised that a lot of journalists lacked knowledge on how to write articles that would enhance behavioural change. He said there was need for journalists to come up with strategies that would fight the stigma against people living with AIDS. "You know it is very surprising that people call a person with HIV/AIDS an ‘AIDS victim’. Why is it that you do not call a person who is suffering from malaria, ‘a malaria victim’?" Chisale asked.

Malawi’s Director of Information, Robert Ngaiyaye, said the two-year long project would train media personnel in HIV/AIDS reporting so that they could collect, analyse and disseminate accurate information about the pandemic to people in the country.

He said that media practitioners had the obligation to report positively on the experiences of people living with AIDS in the rural areas to fight stigma attached to the pandemic. "Journalists should take positive voices of people living with HIV/AIDS by publishing interviews and testimonies of the day-to-day realities of the rural poor in this way the war on stigma and discrimination will be won," Ngaiyaye said.

He said by reporting HIV/AIDS with a human face, the media would dispel misconceptions and myths that contribute to stigma on the disease. "You have to report accurately and compassionately in tackling the plight of the people living with HIV/AIDS. You have the capacity to more influence societal attitudes and perceptions towards HIV/AIDS effectively," he said.

Meanwhile a group of young Malawian celebrities from various media institutions, representing both print and electronic media, have come out and joined forces in a campaign to encourage members of the public to abstain from casual sex and pre-marital sex. The young media celebrities, who have formed a group called AIDS Ambassadors, have said that their first target audience were school going youth.

The AIDS Ambassadors National Coordinator, Jolly Ntaba, a television presenter for Television Malawi, said the main objective of the project is for media celebrities to use their popularity and influence to encourage young people to change their behaviour.

"Our objective is to equip ourselves with relevant information about HIV/AIDS and use our popularity and influence to change the behaviour of young people," says Ntaba. "We will not only concentrate on telling the youth to abstain from illicit sexual unions but also impart to them knowledge on how they can look after those suffering from HIV/AIDS, the advantages of voluntary counselling and testing," he added.

He said that instead of just relying on the media to achieve their objectives, the AIDS Ambassadors have resolved to go into full swing activism by interacting with the youth.

Recently the AIDS Ambassadors comprising of Jolly Ntaba Innocent Gandali and Khumbo Kachibekete from Television Malawi’s, Jennifer Mmodzi from Malawi Broadcasting Corporation’s, Peter Makossa of the Nation Newspapers, John Ng’ ambani of the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAPHAM) and Ken Manana, a musician with the Adams Family Band visited ten secondary schools in Northern Malawi to discussion prevention strategies with students.

"As young people leading a public life and posing as role models, the Ambassadors have decided to interact with the secondary students to share with them the importance of abstinence. Our interaction with students in northern Malawi has made a great difference. The curiosity, the questions, the drama and the testimonies that students shared with us are a demonstration that besides writing, interaction is very important in the fight against HIV/AIDS amongst the youth," Ntaba said.

He said young people are the most likely sector of the population to be involved in activities with higher risk for HIV infection. Although youth are targeted in HIV and AIDS campaigns, the voices have remained silent. The activities of the AIDS Ambassadors have offered an opportunity to youth to discuss, share and learn about HIV and AIDS.

Media activism against HIV/AIDS dates back to mid 1990s when veteran Malawian journalist, Kaulanda Nkosi publicly declared that he was HIV positive. He traveled throughout the country to teach people about dangers, preventative measures and caring methods of those affected and infected by HIV. Nkosi died in the late 1990s. The AIDS Ambassadors are carrying on the tradition as a new generation media celebrities who are speaking out against HIV and AIDS. (ENDS/IPS/AF/SA/HD/CR/BL/SM/03)

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