TVEAP joins quest for higher quality media coverage on HIV/AIDS

TVE Asia Pacific (TVEAP) is working with the Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD)  to create minimum quality standards for media content generation on HIV/AIDS.

The consultative process seeks to optimise media's role in preventing the spread of HIV while respecting the rights and dignity of persons living with HIV.

AIBD has been an active partner in the development of broadcast quality standards (ISAS BC 9001), and has been promoting the adoption of these standards among its member broadcasters in the Asia Pacific. Building on this, AIBD has been commissioned by UNAIDS to develop minimum quality standards for HIV prevention activities undertaken through print, broadcast and online media.

TVEAP's Director/CEO Nalaka Gunawardene is serving on an AIBD-convened international expert group to draft the standards, which will then go through a review and validation process involving media practitioners and managers from all regions.

The group held its first meeting on 6 – 7 March 2008 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This clarified the different terms used to identify various genres or formats of media products (in print, broadcast and online media), and listed processes that lead to content generation.

The next steps would be to identify opportunities for enhancing quality (defined in terms of both editorial values and greater sensitivity to persons living with HIV) and suggest ways in which media's efforts can support HIV prevention strategies undertaken by governments, civil society and international organizations.

The AIBD-convened expert group includes senior industry professionals from print, broadcast and online media backgrounds, as well as specialists in communicating for social change. The process is advised by Geneva-based Certimedia, which specializes in consulting and training towards ISAS BC-9001 & ISAS P-9001 certification. 

"The minimum standards we develop will be useful to broadcasters and other media," says AIBD's programme manager K P Madhu.

For much of its 12-year history, TVE Asia Pacific has been engaged in the production and distribution of quality TV programmes and video films on HIV and AIDS. In 2004, it organised a global film festival on AIDS as part of the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand. It currently distributes globally acclaimed TV productions on HIV such as the drama series Scenarios from Africa and animation series The Three Amigos.