nalists (ZUJ) under the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ). The MAZ alliance unites MISA Zimbabwe, the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe and the National Editors Forum and ZUJ. In contrast, the prospects for unity over issues like a code of ethics and a media council remains in doubt in Namibia. This despite recurring indications by government that it would consider legal controls if the media did not ‘put its house in order’. In order to head off further calls for controls on the media, it is imperative for the media to introduce an ethics code and start regulating itself. MISA firmly believes that there is a link between the social environment in which journalists work and media freedom. This link is recognized by the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) which at its 2005 General Conference included the right to decent working conditions as part of the enabling environment for media freedom and allocated resources to support work in this area. The Bellagio Statement also explicitly recognized this link between living standards and working conditions to media freedom. Attempts in Botswana, Malawi and Swaziland to resuscitate journalist unions should therefore be supported. 2.2. A Gender Perspective 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 were living with HIV in 2006 – 2.6 million more than in 2004. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to bear the brunt of the pandemic, with two-thirds (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 gives one the impression that there is no serious cause for alarm. 2.2.1 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 Southern African Development Community (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. 14 Annual Report 2006