Internews, Kenya

Reprint from Internews

In 2003, many Kenyans stopped visiting Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) centers after the media consistently reported that rapid HIV tests have inaccurate results. The sources of the reports were laboratory technicians who were unhappy about the money they were losing on carrying out enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests. VCT centers, it seemed, took away their business.

The story was first published in one of the country's largest daily newspapers. Radio stations followed with early morning bulletins quoting the newspaper. The story spread rapidly. By lunchtime, the news about "inaccurate HIV tests" led almost every radio and television news bulletin.

These misleading and damaging stories were published as a direct result of two things: poor journalism on the part of the news media and bad media relations on the part of the local AIDS organisations.

Had the journalist who first published the story had the knowledge and access to reliable sources at medical institutions and VCT centers, this fiasco could have been prevented.

This is why it is as important to train non-governmental organisations NGOs and government officials in effective media relations as it is to train journalists on HIV/AIDS reporting.

Very few Kenyan NGOs have a designated person to deal with the media. Even fewer have cultivated personal relationships with journalists or would be willing to give out their home and cell phone numbers to journalists so that they can be reached after hours. Breaking stories such as the VCT one described above happen at unexpected times. When radio journalists wanted to get reaction from government or medical experts for their 6 am bulletins, most did not have access to such people. It may sound like an early hour to be interviewed on the phone, but the discomfort of an early morning interview would have been far less than the efforts to clear up the negative consequences of that story.

But, the same can be said about journalists. The newspaper journalist who broke the story should have at least asked the opinion of a VCT expert to explain the real facts and politics of the AIDS world to him.

Increasing journalists' HIV/AIDS knowledge and giving them access to useful resources will certainly help them to produce more responsible stories. But, this can't be done if a large part of the resources – in this case AIDS experts – do not realise the importance of being available to them and don't understand how the news world works.

That could be one reason why trainings that NGOs offer to the media often don't work. They mostly consist of expert after expert presenting medical issues to journalists without anyone explaining how those issues could become stories.

Part of creating good AIDS journalists, would be to create a pool of journalists who regularly report on these issues. In radio, for example, there are journalists like Esther Macharia from Radio Citizen and Ann Mikia and Sammy Muraya of the KBC. They all have weekly HIV/AIDS programmes.

Journalists who often report on HIV/AIDS get the opportunity to develop specialised knowledge on the issue. They also get the chance to create personal relationships with AIDS experts. But they can't do it alone. They need NGOs to work with them.

Click here for media tips for NGOs.