24. HIV/AIDS and the Media Proposed: MEAA, Australia The 24th IFJ Congress, meeting in Seoul on June 11th to June 15th, 2001 Notes that HIV/AIDS is a worldwide catastrophe on a human rights level, on an economic level and on an employment and industrial level. There are significant HIV/AIDS epidemics in every region of the world. Entire industries are being destroyed because their workers are dying from AIDS. Journalists and journalists’ unions are no different. Many unions have significant numbers of members who are living HIV/AIDS, and significant numbers of members who have died of AIDS. The IFJ Executive will develop a comprehensive policy on HIV/AIDS that will:

• Ensure the industrial rights of journalists living with HIV/AIDS are protected;


• Ensure the safety of journalists with HIV/AIDS and those reporting on the HIV/AIDS epidemic by incorporating HIV/AIDS into the IFJ Safety Programme;


• Create a guide to the reporting of HIV/AIDS which will assist in media coverage of the epidemic and ensure people living with HIV/AIDS are treated sensitively and not be demonised in the media;


• As part of that guide, ensure affiliate unions and their members have access to accurate and current HIV/AIDS information,, including epidemiological figures, routes of transmission and HIV/AIDS treatments by providing links to key AIDS bodies, such as UNAIDS, UNESCO, the US Centres for Disease Control, the Australian National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research.