The Association of Health Journalists (AOHJ) in collaboration with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) on Saturday organised a one-day media briefing on the follow-up to the High Level Meeting on the Universal Access on Aids, which was held at the UN headquarters in New York, from the 8th-10th June 2011.

The one-day forum brought together media practitioners, both from the print and electronic and was held at the Girl Guides Conference Hall, along MDI Road in Kanifing. It also accorded the participants the opportunity to interact and discuss the role of the media in the Aids response and how to reduce the prevalence of stigma and discrimination in the society.

Addressing the participants, Nuha Ceesay, UNAIDS Country officer, spoke among other things on the significance of the High Level Meeting and the role of the media by ensuring these objectives are achieved. He however added that the High Level Meeting came at a crucial moment, when the global AIDS response deadline for achieving key goals and targets are unanimously set by the member states in order to reverse the pandemic, including the goal to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support which expired at the end of 2010 and were reviewed. This, he added, resulted in the adoption of Resolution 65/277.

He explained that the global leaders also adopted the new UNDAIDS strategy-getting to zero and called on all concerned parties to ensure the implementation of robust programmes that would lead to zero new infections, zero AIDS related deaths and zero stigma and discrimination.

He further went on to outline that symbolically, 2011 also marked 30 years since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. "The High Level Meeting therefore provided the platform where delegates took stock of three decades of the response of HIV/AIDS at country, regional and global levels and as well agreed on concrete actions for the next five years, that is until 2015," he stated.

According to him, the AIDS movement is a story of people breaking the conspiracy of silence and demanding equity and dignity. "It is also the story of people who are confronting society's wrongs and seizing their rights to access comprehensive prevention, treatment, care and support services.

It is the story of people outraged by the epidemic and their passionate call for social justice and protection. It is also a call for mother-to-child transmission of HIV, prevention revolution and above all ensure the elimination of HIV related stigma and discrimination and a call to guarantee the survival of people living with HIV," he remarked.

Ceesay further recalled that in the early 1980s when HIV/AIDS was first discovered, there were many conspiracy theories some of them on the origin of AIDS from Africa. "Some claimed that it was a Western strategy to control the African population. To some it was another form of introducing Family Planning. Others cannot just believe that AIDS exists in the first place. The conspiracy theories, resulted in denial, high prevalence of stigma and discrimination, violation of human rights of people living with HIV, limited action and now over 33 million people are living with HIV globally," he disclosed.

For his part, Alieu Jammeh, the director of the National AIDS Secretariat (NAS) delved into the importance of civic journalism, which he said has promoted additional styles of reporting that contributed to public deliberations on important issues and how people might address these issues. A core goal of this approach, he said, is to increase the range of voices included in public deliberations.

For her part, Fatou Touray, the president of AOHJ, expressed delight with the partnership between her association, the UNAIDS and NAS, which she described as very cordial. "Our role is to sensitise the general public and do away with stigma and discrimination and to rather see them as productive citizens," she remarked. She then challenged every Gambian to go for a voluntary testing, to know his/her status. She also thanked the UNAIDS for funding such training.

Emil Touray, the president of the Gambia Press Union, also expressed similar sentiment. The programme was chaired by Francis Mendy of GRTS who also doubles as the secretary general of the AOHJ.