7.2 HIV/IDS in the media The affect of HIV/AIDS on the work force, on productivity and ultimately on businesses in the region has not escaped the media industry. In SADC media businesses are operating in a region with the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the world. In an attempt to support the media in the SADC region, MISA hosted a conference on HIV/AIDS in the media in September 2003. MISA’s particular interest was to examine the media’s internal responses to the disease , especially as it had become clear that very few media houses in the region had developed internal policies to deal with the disease. In preparation for the conference MISA conducted desk-top research which revealed that the media had largely taken the incidence of the disease as news for coverage and reporting, but had not internalized its impact on the media as a business. Thus journalists and reporters had been provided with training on writing and covering the disease and little has been done to equip media institutions with strategies to manage the disease within the workplace. As a result, as there are no workplace policies, media workers have not been assisted to personally deal with the disease as it affects them. The silence is deafening. It is clear that many media workers are affected by the disease – personally, in their immediate families or communities – and that many of them are dying silently , fearing stigmatization and social exclusion. Following the conference MISA published a report “HIV/AIDS & the media” which included the conference papers, resolutions and, most importantly, personal accounts of journalists living with the disease. The report was circulated to media houses in March 2004 as part of the resolution to engage the media in an effort to encourage them to develop HIV/AIDS workplace policies. 7.3 Media, Poverty and Development As a way of engaging media on pertinent issues, MISA also organised a one and half days conference on development issues. The conference included presentations from the NEPAD secretariat and the UN Economic Commission for Africa which also looked at the progress of certain African countries towards their Millennium Development Goals. The implementation processes of the World Bank Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers in the various SADC countries were also discussed. Central to the conference discussions was the issue of what the media can do to make these development issues part of the public discourse in the region. MISA Annual Report (April 2003 – March 2004) 85