College students take part in a HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh November 27, 2008.
REUTERS/Ajay Verma

By Jennifer Robin Raj, Reuters Bangalore and participant on Thomson Reuters Foundation's 'Reporting HIV AIDS course' Bangkok, 10-14 November 2008

Bangalore, Nov 19 – India’s press watchdog has issued new guidelines for reporting on HIV and AIDS, calling for greater efforts to protect the identities of those carrying the virus and written consent for any stories about them.

Journalists are encouraged to avoid alarmist reports and images of the sick and dying that convey a sense of gloom, helplessness and isolation, and are not to use hidden cameras.

The Press Council of India, an autonomous statutory body, said that children in particular who are infected by HIV or living with it in their families should not be photographed or identified by name.

To help protect the identity of individuals, the guidelines recommend filming in silhouette, filming hands, feet or the back of the head, and not revealing the exact location of the shoot.

The council, which worked with UNAIDS and other groups on the new guidelines for both written and electronic media issued on Nov 16, discourages the use of words such as “scourge”, “AIDS patient/victim/sufferer” and said the term "HIV/AIDS" was no longer accurate.
 
"With effective treatments now available, HIV infection does not necessarily lead to AIDS. It is important to reflect this in reportage. Since HIV is not synonymous with AIDS, ‘HIV/AIDS’ as a term is no longer considered accurate."

 "News organisations should take the initiative to lessen the impact of a ‘negative’ story such as suicide due to HIV-related illness by carrying statements from positive people who have faced the challenge successfully, or by giving help-line numbers," the guidelines say.

The council's decision cannot be challenged in any court of law in India. Media reactions were mixed and some said they were not informed of or involved in drawing up the new guidelines.

According to official Indian figures some 2.5 million people in the country of 1.1 billion people are infected by HIV, representing some 13% of the world’s total.

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Enter the code shown on the left

When you submit a comment to us we request your name, e-mail address and optionally a link to a website. Please note where you submit a website address, we may link to it via your name. By sending us a comment, you accept that we have the right to show the comment and your name to users. Although we require your email address, this will not be published on the site, and is only required to enable us to check facts with you, e.g. if you are making a claim we can not confirm easily. Additionally, if you would like your comment removed at anytime, you'll have to use this e-mail address when you contact us. To remove a comment at any time please e-mail us at blogs-(at)-reuters-(dot)-com (address obscured to avoid spam) specifying who you are and what you would like removed. We moderate all comments and will publish everything that advances the post directly or with relevant tangential information. We reserve the right to edit comments in order to maintain the quality of the comments, and may not include links to irrelevant material. We try not to publish comments that we think are offensive or appear to pass you off as another person, and we will be conservative if comments may be considered libelous. Reuters will use your data in accordance with Reuters privacy policy. Reuters Group is primarily responsible for managing your data. As Reuters is a global company your data will be transferred and available internationally, including in countries which do not have privacy laws but Reuters seeks to comply with its privacy policy.