In a country where articles on AIDS do not sell, a new magazine tries to show another way of reporting on the disease. "The Advocate" tries to show Zambians that AIDS does not necessarily kill, and what kind of treatments exist.

In April 2005, the Zambia Chapter of the Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) launched "The Advocate" (circulation 6,000), a monthly magazine with the aim of carrying high-quality articles on subjects such as media reforms, matters of good governance, human rights, gender and HIV and AIDS. RAP 21 spoke to Anthony Mukwita, editor of "The Advocate", about the HIV/AIDS coverage and the hurdles encountered six months after the launch of the magazine.

Two pages out of twenty are dedicated to HIV/AIDS issues and an additional page is devoted to gender and children issues as they are very closely linked to the disease.

"The main problem with reporting on AIDS in Zambia is that HIV stories are not popular. There is a habit in our country to report on politics. HIV stories don’t sell, while political stories sell very well. So the public and the newspapers are to blame for this lack of reporting on AIDS,” says Mukwita. Mainstream newspapers often have to make commercial choices and prefer putting advertisements instead of stories about AIDS, as this enables them to earn revenues.

Mukwita also thinks that the way the stories about AIDS are framed is to blame. “They all say that sex kills, that HIV kills. There are no positive articles. People should get to know that having HIV or AIDS is not the end. It’s stigma issue that is the main problem.”

The main needs of the readership regarding HIV is not about the illness itself, but about the infrastructure that exists in Zambia to treat HIV. “We think that people need to know more about voluntary testing and counselling, or how they can access ARVs (anti-retroviral treatment), how to use condoms, etc,” says Mukwita and adds that the mainstream media are producing good articles but that they just don’t do it often enough.

However, the low popularity of stories on HIV and AIDS has also become a difficulty for "The Advocate". The magazine is currently facing financial hardship. “Initially, we did a proposal for this publication to be sustainable. But the initial budget we had has already run out, and now we are on a shoestring budget,” says Mukwita. For him the solution lays in finding more advertisers. “We already have some sponsors. However, many of the contracts we have are coming to an end with the next edition of magazine. We will manage as long as we have even small adverts. But sometimes, people don’t pay immediately and our debts are mounting...”

In order to get more sponsors and to have a greater impact, Mukwita would like "The Advocate" to be published more often. ’"People easily forget a publication that comes out only once a month,” he says. From a business point of view he would prefer to appear daily, however, being for example a weekly gives more time to produce high-quality articles on HIV and AIDS. “Currently we have time to make features with a human face. Also, in other newspapers, there is a lack of analysis which we supply in our magazine."

Mukwita remains optimistic about the future of his magazine and says that they are hoping to gain financial independence from MISA. “We want to invite people to buy shares in the newspaper. There is a great need for a neutral newspaper on the market.”