Local press accused of dramatizing AIDS stories

Local press accused of dramatizing AIDS stories

JAKARTA (JP): The local mass media tends to sensationalize
reports on cases of AIDS, giving the public the wrong perception
about the disorder, a senior journalist said yesterday.

Agnes Aristiarini, a science, technology and health editor at
the Kompas daily, said that the personal lives of those infected
by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which causes the deadly
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), are treated as
analogous to those of criminals.

"All of this unnecessarily aggravates fear of the disease
instead of improving the awareness of the need to combat myths
about the disease," she told the 500 participants of a one-day
"AIDS Update" symposium held by the Indonesian AIDS society.

Agnes cited the 1994 controversy over the government's banning
of American basketball star Magic Johnson simply because he had
tested HIV positive.

Yesterday's symposium was part of efforts to disseminate the
results of the July International AIDS Congress held in
Vancouver, Canada. It was reported at that congress that 21
million people have tested HIV positive and six million people
have developed AIDS worldwide.

The latest government figures put the number of HIV/AIDS cases
in Indonesia at 438. The World Health Organization, however, has
said that about 50,000 Indonesians might be infected with HIV.

Experts say that a major obstacle to detecting and preventing
the disorder is public ignorance of the ways the virus can be
transmitted.

Agnes challenged the mass media to set a trend and to prepare
society to be better informed on issues related to HIV and AIDS
by making more proportional reports.

"After all, our society has no power to reject the HIV or
AIDS. It must accept them as a reality facing the global
community, as well as our own society," Agnes said, adding that
there is no cure for the syndrome yet.

HIV is transmitted mainly through the exchange of bodily
fluids. (14)