'Media, private sector must help fight AIDS'

JAKARTA (JP): A senior journalist said yesterday that there comes a time when the press should interpret its stories, and that time comes when it writes about the deadly Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

"We should not only present a series of facts. A feeling of compassion, empathy and emotion must be included in news presentations on AIDS in order to arouse people's attention and understanding on the problem," St. Sularto, the deputy chief editor of the Kompas daily, told the national conference on AIDS yesterday.

Sularto said that the media could play a significant role in fighting AIDS. The media should also pay serious attention to problems related to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which causes AIDS.

The three-day national conference on AIDS, which began on Wednesday, aims to provide a forum for policy-makers, religious leaders, medical workers, academics and activists to set up proper programs to fight against AIDS in Indonesia.

"HIV and AIDS are not just health problems. They are closely related to social, economic and political issues. They are the problems of all human beings and their future," Sularto said.

Theoretically, he said, the press should become closely involved in all social problems. And since it first exploded in the l980s, AIDS has become a serious social concern.

"The press will never exaggerate if it gives ample coverage on the issue," he said, pointing out how inadequate the understanding of most people, including media workers, was of AIDS.

"A lack of understanding on AIDS-related problems has plunged people into a kind of social hysteria," Sularto said.

He cited the controversy over the planned visit of American basketball star Magic Johnson, who tested positive for HIV, and the isolation imposed on a woman in Pontianak who admitted that she was HIV positive.

"These saddening stories wouldn't have happened had the people been better-informed about the HIV and AIDS infections," he said.

The conference also wanted the private sector to play a greater role in fighting AIDS.

Bambang W. Soepriyanto, personnel director of the National Gobel electronics company, said the matter was new to the business world.

"In the past, we always thought that AIDS is a disease of people in the West, and that it could never affect us," he said. "Now, however, we have realized that AIDS is already here. Any of us may become one of its victims."

In cooperation with two anti-AIDS campaign organizations, the Kusuma Buana Foundation and the Program for Appropriate Technology, the National Gobel company has given 2,000 of its employees AIDS awareness training.

AIDS mostly strikes people aged from 20 to 49 years; 60 percent of Indonesian workers are in this age group.

Marzuki Abdullah, director of planning of the Bandung-based Bio Farma pharmaceutical company, said that AIDS awareness programs were important in protecting the company's 550 workers from the deadly disease. (raw)