The 2006 AIDS Epidemic Update from UNAIDS states that HIV infection is growing, as is the number of deaths due to AIDS. A total of 39.5 million people worldwide were living with HIV in 2006 – 2.6 million more than in 2004. SubSaharan Africa continues to bear the brunt of the pandemic, with two-thirds (or 63 per cent) of the world’s adults and children with HIV living in the region. One-third (32 per cent) of all people with HIV globally live in southern Africa and 34 per cent of all deaths due to AIDS in 2006 occurred there. Gender inequality is a key factor fuelling the pandemic, with women and girls being the worst affected and infected. These statistics reveal that southern Africa has a crisis that needs to be addressed and put on the media agenda once more. Media coverage of HIV and AIDS and its gender dimensions, however, gives one the impression that there is no serious cause for alarm. What the statistics tell us The media’s coverage of the pandemic is perceived to be low and superficial as evidenced by research conducted in 2005 under the Media Action Plan (MAP), which is coordinated by the Southern African Editors’ Forum (SAEF). Media analysis company Media Tenor also conducted research from January to December 2006 that looked at the coverage of AIDS in South Africa and Namibia. The conclusions drawn from these two pieces of research agree that the media is largely ignoring HIV and AIDS and that the gender dimensions and other major drivers of the pandemic were insufficiently reported. In the MAP study, a total of 118 media houses were monitored in 11 SADC countries that saw 37 001 news items monitored over one month in 2005. Out of these news items, only three per cent focused on or mentioned the pandemic. The study further revealed how the SADC media covers the pandemic and its gender dimensions. People living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHIV) constituted a mere four per cent of sources for all news items, compared to 42 per cent of government officials and officials representing international organisations. PLHIV were most often used as sources in Swaziland (10 per cent), Tanzania (seven per cent) and South Africa (six per cent). In Malawi no PLHIV were used as sources in the period under review. Despite the disproportionate burden of the pandemic borne by women, who constitute the highest proportion of those living with HIV as well as provide most of the care, they constituted only 39 per cent of sources overall. Men’s voices dominated in all topic categories, except for care. The bulk of the coverage (40 per cent) centred on prevention but issues such as sexual power relations, mother-tochild transmission, intergenerational sex, gender-based violence and cultural practices as sub-topics of prevention received limited coverage. Care and support received a mere 16 per cent of total coverage. Within this topic category, orphans and vulnerable children received the greatest attention, with home-based care (often a euphemism for unpaid women’s work) receiving only minimal mention. In the area of treatment, the media focused on anti-retrovirals (32 per cent) and the medical aspects of AIDS (27 per cent), while positive living, the role of nutrition and where to go for help received only marginal mention. The impact of the epidemic received a mere five per cent of coverage, suggesting that the media still views HIV and AIDS as a health rather than a developmental matter. 46 Annual Report 2007