Botswana has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV/AIDS. The role of the media in the combat against the disease evokes strong feelings among both media professionals and health workers.

"The situation of the media is very difficult. They face great financial difficulties, which partly explains why they cannot dedicate more space to HIV problems in their newspapers, says Caroline Phiri-Lubwika, information officer at Botswana chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). “They have to fight every day to survive. Furthermore, they have to tackle many issues, AIDS is not the only problem there is in Botswana.” She adds that international organisations that fight against AIDS are not helping the newspapers enough. “They offer occasional training of several days for journalists but there is no ongoing process. There should be in-house training, and permanent AIDS policies in the newspapers,” she says.

Soumitro Gosh, country representative for Population Service International (PSI), a non-governmental organisation which addresses the health problems of low-income and vulnerable populations in developing countries, is more severe. “The media have not been very efficient in fighting AIDS until now. They reach a wide audience in Botswana: people listen to radio even in rural areas; television reaches significant parts of the country and print media reach at least the suburbs of the major cities. Efforts have been made, but they are not in line with the magnitude of HIV in the society," he says.

In September 2004, a report issued by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) noticed that despite the alarming HIV infection in Botswana, the coverage on HIV was still insufficient and that “the crude adage ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ tends to dictate coverage of the disease.” The lack of resources, the lack of a health desk in the different newspapers and finally the lack of experienced and trained journalist were highlighted as the key factors for the insufficient reporting.

Gifti Nadi, senior project officer for Africa at IWMF, says that the major findings of the report showed that: “HIV/AIDS dominates health coverage, but frequency and quality of stories on HIV/AIDS are generally not adequate. Health coverage tends to focus on personalities and there was not enough investigative and analytical reporting. The journalists covering these issues are usually not specialized in health issues which consequently leads to a poor command of technical language.”

"People do not listen anymore"
Kebareng Solomon, chief information officer at the government-owned “Daily News” newspaper, believes that the problem does not originate from the media. “I believe the message has reached the population. Today, everybody knows everything that there is to know about HIV and AIDS. But people just refuse to change their behaviour. I don’t know what more we could do. It is the people that now have to start becoming responsible as individuals and not engage in unprotected sex,” she says.

“People are tired of always hearing about AIDS. They do not listen anymore. There is maybe too much information out there, and people get bored and just don’t read the articles about AIDS anymore,” says Chwaame Thato, who is in charge of the AIDS section at the Mmegi newspaper.

Mona Drage, UNAIDS program officer in Botswana, adds: “A problem might be that the threat of HIV/AIDS is not being internalized; although it is all over, it is being seen as something that happens to others.” She also raises the problem about what seems to be too much coverage: ”Especially in the written press there seems to be an exhaustion on the theme of HIV/AIDS.”

Soumitro Gosh from Population Service International, does not agree with this. “The media should on the contrary increase their coverage of HIV and AIDS. Frequency is a crucial factor. The repetition of a same message is very important: if you say the same things over and over, it will work and the message will finally get across.”

He also evokes the problem of journalists who lack proper training. “Sensational articles are written, they create nice stories but it doesn’t support actual prevention. For example, there can be an article in a paper about children playing with condoms in the street, but there is no article about how condoms actually work. And one can still read stories that disseminate traditional beliefs, as the one saying that a condom is actually a means to catch AIDS. There is never a scientific authority in those articles to confirm or justify their facts. Consequently, there is a great need for the sensitization of journalists, for them to be more informative,” says Gosh.

Caroline Phiri-Lubwika from MISA says: “Articles where a human aspect is tackled are the most efficient.” She adds that another of the major problems today is that people think that being HIV positive is equivalent to a death sentence. “Articles should give hope to the people, they should encourage people instead of only scaring them”, she says.

Talk Back is a TV show about HIV/AIDS that has proven very successful in Botswana. It is an interactive show where people can send questions via SMS and email. Another original initiative is the show the radio-based soap opera Makgabaneng, which aims to promote safe sex and a healthier life. The soap focuses on the lives of people in a small town, with the topic of HIV/AIDS being introduced gradually. When the soap opera celebrated its 100th episode with a free show in the central square of the capital Gaborone, hundreds gathered to be entertained by the cast.